Identifying and locating objects by associating video data of the objects with signals identifying wireless devices belonging to the objects

ABSTRACT

A method includes receiving video data from an A/V recording and communication device (A/V device) having a camera, the video data representing an object in a field of view (FOV) of the camera. The method further includes receiving, from the A/V device, identifying information for a wireless device proximate the object in the FOV of the camera (the FOV identifying information). The method further includes, after receiving the FOV identifying information, storing the video data and the FOV identifying information in a memory. The method further includes receiving identifying information for one or more wireless devices associated with activity of interest (the identifying information of interest). The method further includes determining that the FOV identifying information matches the identifying information of interest. The method further includes, after determining that the FOV identifying information matches the identifying information of interest, creating a record associating the video data with activity of interest.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/424,970, filed on May 29, 2019, and thisapplication also claims priority to provisional application Ser. No.62/677,951, filed on May 30, 2018, the entire contents of each of whichare hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present embodiments relate to audio/video (A/V) recording andcommunication devices, including A/V recording and communicationdoorbells, security cameras, and floodlight controllers. In particular,the present embodiments relate to improvements in the functionality ofA/V recording and communication devices that strengthen the ability ofsuch devices to reduce crime and enhance public safety.

BACKGROUND

Home security is a concern for many homeowners and renters. Thoseseeking to protect or monitor their homes often wish to have video andaudio communications with visitors, for example, those visiting anexternal door or entryway. A/V recording and communication devices, suchas doorbells, provide this functionality, and can also aid in crimedetection and prevention. For example, audio and/or video captured by anA/V recording and communication device can be uploaded to the cloud andrecorded on a remote server. Subsequent review of the A/V footage canaid law enforcement in capturing perpetrators of home burglaries andother crimes. Further, the presence of one or more A/V recording andcommunication devices on the exterior of a home, such as a doorbell unitat the entrance to the home, acts as a powerful deterrent againstwould-be burglars.

SUMMARY

The various embodiments of the present identifying and locating objectsby associating video data of the objects with signals identifyingwireless devices belonging to the objects have several features, nosingle one of which is solely responsible for their desirableattributes. Without limiting the scope of the present embodiments asexpressed by the claims that follow, their more prominent features nowwill be discussed briefly. After considering this discussion, andparticularly after reading the section entitled “Detailed Description,”one will understand how the features of the present embodiments providethe advantages described herein.

One aspect of the present embodiments includes the realization thatimages captured by A/V recording and communication devices sometimes donot clearly depict persons in the field of view (FOV) of the camera. Forexample, the person in the FOV may be too far away from the camera, orthe lighting conditions may not be adequate to produce a clear image.Unclear images can be of limited value when attempting to identify apotential criminal suspect in the images. Another aspect of the presentembodiments includes the realization that persons recorded in videofootage are often carrying wireless devices, such as smartphones, thatemit signals including identifying information for the wireless devices.Another aspect of the present embodiments includes the realization thatA/V recording and communication devices, such as video doorbells, ifproperly equipped, may be able to detect the signals emitted by wirelessdevices.

Accordingly, the present embodiments solve the problems outlined aboveby leveraging the functionality of A/V recording and communicationdevices to record video data of persons, and to receive identifyingsignals from wireless devices carried by the recorded persons, tothereby facilitate the identification of persons of interest. Forexample, image, video, and/or audio data of a person of interestcaptured by an A/V recording and communication device may be stored inthe cloud along with wireless device identifying information receivedcontemporaneously with the recording of the image, video, and/or audiodata. The stored data and wireless device identifying information maysubsequently be used to identify persons suspected of criminal activity,or other persons of interest to police. In other embodiments,identifying signals from wireless devices may be used to locate, in realtime, criminal suspects, kidnapping victims, or other persons ofinterest. In still further embodiments, identifying signals fromwireless devices may be used to determine whether a person entering apremises is an intruder or someone more benign, such as a resident,roommate, family member, etc. These and other embodiments are describedin detail below.

In a first aspect, a method for identifying a wireless device in datacollected from an A/V recording and communication device is provided.The A/V recording and communication device may include a camera and acommunication module. The method may include recording, by the camera ofthe A/V recording and communication device, video data of an object inan FOV of the camera. The object may have associated therewith andproximate thereto the wireless device. The method may include receiving,by the communication module of the A/V recording and communicationdevice, a signal from the wireless device. The signal may includeidentifying information for the wireless device. The method may includetransmitting, by the communication module of the A/V recording andcommunication device, the video data and the identifying information forthe wireless device to a network-connected device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the network-connected device isone of a hub device and a server.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further includedetecting, by a motion sensor of the A/V recording and communicationdevice, motion of the object.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further include, inresponse to detecting the motion of the object, waking the communicationmodule from a passive state to begin receiving the signal from thewireless device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further includereceiving, by the communication module, a camera activation instruction.The camera activation instruction may have been sent by thenetwork-connected device in response to a notification of an occurrenceof an event involving the object and the associated wireless device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, transmitting the video data andthe identifying information for the wireless device to thenetwork-connected device may include transmitting the video data and theidentifying information associated with the video data to thenetwork-connected device in response to receiving the camera activationinstruction.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further include, inresponse to receiving the camera activation instruction, waking thecommunication module from a passive state to begin receiving the signalfrom the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, in response to receiving thecamera activation instruction, the method may further include waking thecamera from a passive state to begin recording the video data.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the notification may includepre-identified wireless device identifier data associated with theoccurrence of the event.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, transmitting the video data andthe identifying information for the wireless device to thenetwork-connected device may include: transmitting the video data to thenetwork-connected device; and transmitting the identifying informationto the network-connected device after transmitting the video data to thenetwork-connected device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the signal from the wirelessdevice may be encoded and the method may further include decoding thesignal from the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further includestoring the decoded signal in a memory of the A/V recording andcommunication device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further includestoring the signal in a memory of the A/V recording and communicationdevice.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further includestoring the video data in a memory of the A/V recording andcommunication device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the signal may include at leastone of: a Bluetooth signal, a Bluetooth-low energy signal, a WiFisignal, and a Zigbee signal.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further includedetermining, based on the video data, a direction of movement of theobject.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further includedetermining, based on the video data, a speed of movement of the object.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the object may include a person.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the person is at least one of: acriminal suspect and a crime victim.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the object may include a pet.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the object may include a vehicle.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the vehicle may include, as adriver or a passenger thereof, at least one of: a criminal suspect and acrime victim.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may include receiving,by the communication module, permission data of a user of the A/Vrecording and communication device. The permission data may include oneof: a presence of, and an absence of, permission to transmit theidentifying information for the wireless device to the network-connecteddevice.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may include storing thepermission data in a memory of the A/V recording and communicationdevice.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may include receiving,by the communication module, a request to transmit the identifyinginformation for the wireless device to the network-connected device,where transmitting the video data and the identifying information forthe wireless device to the network-connected device may includetransmitting the identifying information to the network-connected devicein response to the permission data including the presence of permissionto transmit the identifying information to the network-connected device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the identifying information forthe wireless device may include a media access control (MAC) address ofthe wireless device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the communication module includesa WiFi antenna communicatively coupled with a router, and the method mayfurther include detecting an access request of the wireless device to aWiFi network associated with the A/V recording and communication device;determining that the MAC address for the wireless device is notassociated with a listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFi network;and in response to determining that the MAC address for the wirelessdevice is not associated with the listing of known MAC addresses for theWiFi network, transmitting the MAC address to the network-connecteddevice.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further include, inresponse to determining that the MAC address for the wireless device isnot associated with the listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFinetwork, waking the communication module from a passive state to beginreceiving the signal from the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further include, inresponse to determining that the MAC address for the wireless device isnot associated with the listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFinetwork, waking the camera from a passive state to begin recording thevideo data.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the method may further includedetermining a signal strength of the received signal from the wirelessdevice; and in response to the determined signal strength being lessthan a predetermined signal strength, ignoring the received signal.

In a second aspect, a method for identifying a wireless device based ondata collected by an A/V recording and communication device having acamera is provided. The method may include receiving, by a computingdevice, video data from the A/V recording and communication device of anobject in the FOV of the camera. The object may have associatedtherewith and proximate thereto the wireless device. The method mayinclude receiving, by the computing device from the A/V recording andcommunication device, identifying information for the wireless device.The method may include, in response to receiving the identifyinginformation for the wireless device, storing, by the computing device,the video data and the identifying information for the wireless devicein a memory. The method may include retrieving, from a database, alisting of identifying information for one or more wireless devicesassociated with activity of interest. The method may includedetermining, by the computing device, that the stored identifyinginformation for the wireless device associated with the object in theFOV of the camera matches an entry of the listing of identifyinginformation for one or more wireless devices associated with activity ofinterest. The method may include, in response to determining that thestored identifying information for the wireless device associated withthe object in the FOV of the camera matches the entry of the listing ofidentifying information for one or more wireless devices associated withactivity of interest, creating a record associating the stored videodata with activity of interest.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includestoring, by the computing device, location data for the camera.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includereceiving, by the computing device, a notification of an occurrence ofan event involving the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to receiving the notification, waking the computing devicefrom a passive state to begin receiving the identifying information forthe wireless device.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to receiving the notification, waking the camera from apassive state to begin recording the video data.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the notification may include alocation associated with the occurrence of the event.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includedetermining whether a location of the A/V recording and communicationdevice is within a predetermined distance of the location associatedwith the occurrence of the event.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, storing the video data and theidentifying information for the wireless device in the memory mayinclude storing the video data and the identifying information in thememory in response to determining that the location of the A/V recordingand communication device is within the predetermined distance of thelocation associated with the occurrence of the event.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the notification may includepre-identified wireless device identifier data associated with theoccurrence of the event.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to receiving the identifying information for the wirelessdevice including the pre-identified wireless device identifier data,causing a security system associated with the A/V recording andcommunication device to arm.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to receiving the identifying information for the wirelessdevice including the pre-identified wireless device identifier data,transmitting an alert indicating the receipt of the notificationincluding the pre-identified wireless device identifier data to a clientdevice associated with the A/V recording and communication device.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to receiving the identifying information for the wirelessdevice including the pre-identified wireless device identifier data,transmitting an alert indicating the receipt of the identifyinginformation for the wireless device including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data to a system configured to monitor foremergency events.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the A/V recording andcommunication device is a first A/V recording and communication device,and the method may further include, in response to the computing devicereceiving the identifying information for the wireless device includingthe pre-identified wireless device identifier data from the first A/Vrecording and communication device, causing at least a second A/Vrecording and communication device located within a predetermineddistance of the first A/V recording and communication device to wakefrom a passive state to begin transmitting, to the computing device, theidentifying information for the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to the computing device receiving the identifyinginformation for the wireless device including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the first A/V recording andcommunication device, causing the first and the at least a second A/Vrecording and communication devices to transmit their respectivelocations to the computing device to facilitate locating the object.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the camera is a first camera andthe method may further include, in response to the computing devicereceiving the identifying information for the wireless device includingthe pre-identified wireless device identifier data from the first A/Vrecording and communication device, causing a second camera of the atleast a second A/V recording and communication device to wake from apassive state to begin recording the video data.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to the computing device receiving the identifyinginformation for the wireless device including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the first A/V recording andcommunication device, causing the computing device to receive theidentifying information for the wireless device from the at least asecond A/V recording and communication device after receiving the videodata from the at least a second A/V recording and communication device.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, storing the video data and theidentifying information for the wireless device in the memory mayinclude storing the video data in the memory; and storing theidentifying information in the memory after storing the video data inthe memory.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the identifying information forthe wireless device may be encoded and the method may further includedecoding the identifying information for the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includestoring the decoded identifying information for the wireless device inthe memory.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includedetermining, based on the video data, a direction of movement of theobject.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includedetermining, based on the video data, a speed of movement of the object.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the object may include a person.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the person may be at least oneof: a criminal suspect and a crime victim.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the object may include a pet.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the object may include a vehicle.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the vehicle may include, as adriver or a passenger thereof, at least one of: a criminal suspect and acrime victim.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includereceiving, by the computing device, permission data of a user of the A/Vrecording and communication device, the permission data including oneof: a presence of, and an absence of, permission to store theidentifying information for the wireless device in the memory.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includestoring, by the computing device, the permission data in the memory.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further includereceiving, by the computing device, a request to transmit theidentifying information for the wireless device to an administratorsystem; and in response to receiving the request, transmitting the videodata and the identifying information for the wireless device to theadministrator system in response to the permission data including thepresence of permission to store the identifying information for thewireless device in the memory.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the identifying information forthe wireless device may include a MAC address of the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the A/V recording andcommunication device may include a WiFi antenna communicatively coupledwith a router, and the method may further include: detecting, by thecomputing device, an access request of the wireless device to a WiFinetwork associated with the A/V recording and communication device;determining, by the computing device, that the MAC address for thewireless device is not associated with a listing of known MAC addressesfor the WiFi network; and in response to determining that the MACaddress for the wireless device is not associated with the listing ofknown MAC addresses for the WiFi network, storing, by the computingdevice, the MAC address in the memory.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to determining that the MAC address for the wireless deviceis not associated with the listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFinetwork, waking the computing device from a passive state to beginreceiving the identifying information for the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the method may further include,in response to determining that the MAC address for the wireless deviceis not associated with the listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFinetwork, waking the camera from a passive state to begin recording thevideo data.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, storing the video data and theidentifying information for the wireless device in the memory mayinclude storing, by the computing device, the video data and theidentifying information for the wireless device in a memory of anetwork-connected device coupled in communication with the computingdevice.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, retrieving the listing ofidentifying information for the one or more wireless devices associatedwith activity of interest may include retrieving, by a network-connecteddevice, the listing of identifying information for the one or morewireless devices associated with activity of interest from the database.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, creating the record associatingthe stored video data with activity of interest may include creating, bya network-connected device, the record associating the stored video datawith activity of interest.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, storing the location data for thecamera may include storing the location data for the camera in a memoryof a network-connected device coupled in communication with thecomputing device.

In a third aspect, a method for geographically locating an objectassociated with activity of interest based on data collected from an A/Vrecording and communication device is provided. The object may haveassociated therewith and proximate thereto a wireless device. The methodmay include receiving, by a computing device from a first A/V recordingand communication device: first video data of the object in a first FOVof a camera of the first A/V recording and communication device; andfirst identifying information for the wireless device. The method mayinclude receiving an indication that at least one of the first videodata, the object, and the wireless device is associated with activity ofinterest. The method may include receiving, by the computing device froma second A/V recording and communication device: second video data ofthe object in a second FOV of a camera of the second A/V recording andcommunication device; and second identifying information for thewireless device. The method may include determining that the first andsecond identifying information identify the same wireless device. Themethod may include associating the second video data with activity ofinterest.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the method may further includeidentifying the object in the first and second video data.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, identifying the object in thefirst and the second video data may include determining that: a firstappearance time of the object in the first video data is within a firstpredetermined amount of time of a first receipt time of the firstidentifying information for the wireless device; and a second appearancetime of the object in the second video data is within a secondpredetermined amount of time of a second receipt time of the secondidentifying information for the wireless device.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the object may include a vehicleand identifying the object in the first and the second video data mayinclude matching, by the computing device using alphanumeric characterrecognition, at least a portion of a license plate of the vehicle in thefirst video data with at least a portion of the license plate of thevehicle in the second video data.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the object may include a person,and identifying the object in the first and the second video data mayinclude matching, by the computing device using facial featurerecognition, at least a portion of a face of the person in the firstvideo data with at least a portion of the face of the person in thesecond video data.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the method may further includedetermining, based on the first and the second video data, a directionof movement of the object to facilitate locating the object.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the method may further includedetermining, based on the first and second video data, a speed ofmovement of the object to facilitate locating the object.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the object may include a person.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the person may be at least one of:a criminal suspect and a crime victim.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the object may include a vehicle.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the vehicle may include, as adriver or a passenger thereof, at least one of: a criminal suspect and acrime victim.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be inany way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments,and features described above, further aspects embodiments, and featureswill become apparent by reference to the figures and the followingdetailed description and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various embodiments of the present identifying and locating objectsby associating video data of the objects with signals identifyingwireless devices belonging to the objects now will be discussed indetail with an emphasis on highlighting the advantageous features. Theseembodiments depict the novel and non-obvious identifying and locatingobjects by associating video data of the objects with signalsidentifying wireless devices belonging to the objects shown in theaccompanying drawings, which are for illustrative purposes only. Thesedrawings include the following figures, in which like numerals indicatelike parts:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for identifying a wirelessdevice associated with an object in data collected from an A/V recordingand communication device, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a system for communicating ina network according to various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating one example embodimentof an A/V recording and communication device according to variousaspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating another exampleembodiment of an A/V recording and communication device according tovarious aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram illustrating one example embodimentof a backend device according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating one example embodimentof a client device according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram illustrating one example embodimentof a smart-home hub device according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a geographic network, according tovarious aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for identifying awireless device in data collected from an A/V recording andcommunication device, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example aspect of the processshown in FIG. 9, according to various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating another example aspect of theprocess shown in FIG. 9, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating another example aspect of theprocess shown in FIG. 9, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating another example process foridentifying a wireless device based on data collected by an A/Vrecording and communication device, according to various aspects of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example aspect of the processshown in FIG. 13, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating another example aspect of theprocess shown in FIG. 13, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating another example aspect of theprocess shown in FIG. 13, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example process forgeographically locating an object associated with activity of interestbased on data collected from an A/V recording and communication device,according to various aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 18 is a functional block diagram of a client device on which thepresent embodiments may be implemented according to various aspects ofthe present disclosure; and

FIG. 19 is a functional block diagram of a general-purpose computingsystem on which the present embodiments may be implemented according tovarious aspects of present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for identifying a wirelessdevice associated with an object in data collected from an A/V recordingand communication device. The disclosed systems and methods facilitategeographically locating the object (when the object is associated withactivity of interest, for example) based on the data collected from theA/V recording and communication device. As described in greater detailbelow, one or more A/V recording and communication devices are situatedin a geographic area (e.g., a neighborhood, a city, etc.). Each A/Vrecording and communication device has a video camera and may record theobject in the field of view (FOV) of its video camera. The resultingvideo data may be transmitted to network-connected devices incommunication with the A/V recording and communication device(s), andthe video data may be further processed to, for example, identify and/orotherwise characterize the object for purposes of determining if theobject is, for instance, associated with activity of interest reportedin the geographic area.

The object (e.g., a person) in proximity to the A/V recording andcommunication device may be carrying a wireless device (e.g., asmartphone). The disclosed systems and methods receive signals from thewireless device carried by the person. The A/V recording andcommunication device may be capable of receiving the signals from thewireless device even where the object is not in the FOV of the camera.For example, upon at least one occurrence of the A/V recording andcommunication device recording image data of the personcontemporaneously with receiving signal(s) with identifying informationfor the wireless device carried by the person at a first location, anassociation may be made with the person and/or their wireless device atany other location where an A/V recording and communication devicerecords image data (e.g., video) of the same person and/or receives thesignal with identifying information for the same wireless device.

In those case where there are numerous A/V recording and communicationdevices distributed in a geographic area, if the person and/or theirwireless device identifying information is associated with an event ofinterest, such as a crime, the disclosed systems and methods may providepolice agencies and others in the geographic area the ability to locateand apprehend the suspect and thereby improve the ability of police toprotect the public.

The video data of the person of interest and the identifying informationfor the wireless device carried by the person may be stored in memory,and may be further processed to provide useful information. For example,the video data may be further processed to identify the person. Forinstance, using facial recognition technology, faces and/or facialfeatures of people recorded in the video data may be identified bycomparison and/or matching with existing databases, which may bepublicly-accessible databases like social networks.

Attributes of the signals from the wireless device being carried by theperson and/or otherwise associated with the object may be stored inmemory, and may be further processed to provide useful information. Forexample, the signals from the wireless device carried by the personand/or otherwise associated with the object may be further processed todetermine the identifying information, and the identifying informationdetermined from the signals may be stored in memory. Determining theidentifying information for the wireless device may include decodinginformation that is encoded in the signal(s) received from the wirelessdevice.

Upon the positive association of a person and/or the wireless devicethey are carrying with an event of interest and/or an emergency alert,the detection of either the person or the wireless device in theproximity of A/V recording and communication devices in a geographicarea may cause associated events to take place. Whether or not theseassociated events occur may be dependent in whole or in part on thelevel of permission granted by users of the A/V recording andcommunication devices for systems not directly associated with the usersto access data collected by the A/V recording and communication devicesabout the object and/or the wireless device. For example, upon thereceipt of identifying information from a wireless device known to beassociated with a criminal suspect, the A/V recording and communicationdevice and/or a system (e.g., a server) associated and in communicationwith the A/V recording and communication device may cause a securitysystem to arm at the user's home.

The following detailed description describes the present embodimentswith reference to the drawings. Example methods, apparatuses, andsystems described herein are not intended to limit the scope of thedescription to the precise form or forms detailed herein. Instead thefollowing description is intended to be illustrative so that others mayfollow its teachings.

In the case of persons recorded in the FOV of a camera of an A/Vrecording and communication device, the recorded video and/or audio datamay provide information supportive of making an affirmativeidentification of the person. However, in cases where the video datadoes not include sufficient facial and/or other features, such as voiceaudio data of the person, it may be difficult to determine the person'sidentity. Persons, however, are often carrying wireless devices, such asa smartphones, during such times when their video data is captured inthe FOV of the camera of an A/V recording and communication device. Suchwireless devices may emit wireless signals. These wireless signalsemitted from the wireless devices may include identifying informationabout the wireless devices. Associating identifying information obtainedfrom wireless signal(s) of a wireless device with a particular person ofinterest can be difficult.

The present embodiments solve these problems by leveraging thefunctionality of A/V recording and communication devices, such as A/Vrecording and communication doorbells, to record video data of peopleand to receive data from wireless devices associated with and inproximity to the recorded people. The wireless signals emitted by thewireless devices may be received by components of the A/V recording andcommunication device before, during, and/or after the camera of the A/Vrecording and communication device capturing the video data of theobject in the FOV of the camera. The wireless device signal(s) includingidentifying information for the wireless device may be advantageouslyreceived by the A/V recording and communication device and used foridentifying and geographically locating objects of interest, such ascriminal suspects, even in the absence of video and/or audio data beingcaptured by the A/V recording and communication device. Usingcentralized and/or distributed computing architectures, the disclosedsystems and methods provide added functionality to efficiently andeffectively accomplish computationally-intensive operations to identifyand/or geographically locate objects of interest, such as criminalsuspects, and thereby enhance public safety.

The remaining detailed description describes the present embodimentswith reference to the drawings. In the drawings, reference numbers labelelements of the present embodiments. These reference numbers arereproduced below in connection with the discussion of the correspondingdrawing features.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system for identifying a wireless deviceassociated with an object in data collected from an A/V recording andcommunication device. The system shown in FIG. 1 also facilitatesgeographically locating the object associated with activity of interestbased on the data collected from the A/V recording and communicationdevice. In FIG. 1, one or more A/V recording and communication devices102 are situated in a geographic area (e.g., a neighborhood, a city,etc.). Each A/V recording and communication device 102 has a videocamera with a FOV 104. An object 106 in the FOV 104 of the camera may berecorded, and the resulting video data may be transmitted, via a network108, from the A/V recording and communication device 102 to one or morenetwork-connected devices 110 and/or to one or more client devices 112of user(s) of the A/V recording and communication device 102.

The object 106 may be a person 114, who may be a pedestrian, or either adriver or passenger of a vehicle 116 (e.g., a car). While the person114, for example, is present in the FOV 104 of the camera of the A/Vrecording and communication device 102, he or she may be carrying awireless device 118. The wireless device 118 (e.g., a smartphone) emitssignals that are received by the A/V recording and communication device102. The signals emitted by the wireless device 118 may be receivedcontemporaneously with the recording of the video data of the object 106by the camera of the A/V recording and communication device 102.Alternatively, the object 106 and the wireless device 118 associatedtherewith may be outside the FOV 104 of the camera of the A/V recordingand communication device 102, but an antenna of the A/V recording andcommunication device 102 may be capable of receiving the signals emittedby the wireless device 118 from outside the FOV 104. Multiple persons114 may be present in the FOV of the camera of the A/V recording andcommunication device 102. Likewise, where each person 114 of a pluralityof persons 114 carries a wireless device 118, multiple signals frommultiple wireless devices 118 may be received by the A/V recording andcommunication device 102.

The signals emitted by the wireless device 118 may include informationthat can be used to identify the wireless device 118 and/or its owner(e.g., the person 114). As such, the recording of video data of, forexample, the person 114 and the contemporaneous receipt of the signal(s)including identifying information for the wireless device 118 provide atleast a correlation of the wireless device 118 with the person 114. Thecorrelation of the person 114 with the wireless device 118 may bestronger in cases where no other object 106 besides the person 114 isrecorded in image data captured by the camera and signal(s) arecontemporaneously received by the A/V recording and communication device102 from only one wireless device 118.

In cases where a plurality of A/V recording and communication devices102 are distributed over a geographic area and all record the person 114and receive the signal(s) containing identifying information for thewireless device 118 over time, the correlation of the person 114 withthe wireless device 118 may be stronger. For instance, a first A/Vrecording and communication device 102 at a first location may recordthe person 114 and receive a signal with the identifying information forthe wireless device 118, and then, at some later time, a second A/Vrecording and communication device 102 at a second location may recordthe same person 114 and receive a signal with the identifyinginformation for the same wireless device 118. In this case, therecording of the person 114 and the receipt of signals with theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 at two or morelocations and at two or more times not only provides a strongercorrelation of the person 114 with the wireless device 118, it alsoprovides for geographically locating the person 114 and/or the wirelessdevice 118 in the geographic area. Furthermore, the A/V recording andcommunication device 102 may be capable of receiving the signal(s)including identifying information from the wireless device 118 even whenthe object 106 is not in the FOV 104 of the camera. In such cases,detecting the signal(s) that identify a single wireless device 118 beingpresent in a plurality of locations provides useful information forpurposes of identifying and/or locating the person 114 of interest evenwhere video data of the person 114 of interest is not available at allthe locations.

Where the A/V recording and communication device 102 is located at aresidential, commercial, or other building, it may be associated with asecurity system 120 for the residence, business, or other building. Thesecurity system 120 may control a variety of other devices such asalarms, locks, lights, and lines of communication with police and/orother security personnel (e.g., an alarm monitoring center). In someexamples, the A/V recording and communication device 102 may be incommunication with the security system 120. For example, in response torecording video data of a person 114 and/or receiving one or moresignals from a wireless device 118 known to be associated with criminalor other activity of interest, the A/V recording and communicationdevice 102 may cause the security system 120 to arm.

In other examples, the A/V recording and communication device 102 may bein communication with the one more client devices 112 of user(s) of theA/V recording and communication device 102. For example, the user mayreceive, via a display 124 of the client device 112, the recorded videodata of the object 106 (e.g., the person 114 and/or the vehicle 116),along with displayed information notifying the user of additionalattributes of the object 106. For instance, a person of interestnotification 126 may be provided on the display 124 to alert the user(s)of the A/V recording and communication device 102 of the recording of aperson suspected of or associated with a crime or other activity ofinterest being recorded and/or a wireless device 118 having beenidentified in the vicinity of the user(s) home or business. In additionto the person of interest notification 126, an activity of interestnotification 128 may be provided on the display 124 to provide theuser(s) of the A/V recording and communication device 102 additionaldetails as to the nature of any threat posed by the person 114. Based onthe person of interest 126 notification and/or the activity of interest128 notification, the user of A/V recording and communication device 102may, via sending command signals from the client device 112, control andestablish the armed or disarmed status of all or a portion of thefeatures of the security system 120.

In some examples, an administrator system 130 is in communication withthe A/V recording and communication device 102, one or more of thenetwork-connected devices 110, and/or the client device(s) 112. Theadministrator system 130 may be associated with a police agency, forinstance, and the ability and/or level of access of the administratorsystem 130 to use data gathered by the A/V recording and communicationdevice 102 may be dictated by user permission levels. In other examples,providing the administrator system 130 with access to the data providedand/or stored by the A/V recording and communication device 102 and/orthe associated data stored, further processed, and/or otherwisemaintained by one or more of the network-connected devices 110facilitates a faster, safer, and/or otherwise more efficient andeffective response to an event that may pose a risk to public safety.

In other examples, a system 132 configured to monitor for emergencyevents is in communication with the A/V recording and communicationdevice 102, one or more of the network-connected devices 110, and/or theclient device(s) 112. The system 132 may be associated with a securityagency of, for example, a commercial facility. The system 132 may beassociated with a monitoring agency for the security system 120. Ineither of these examples, the system 132 may communicate with and/orprovide data and/or data access permissions to a police agency,depending on the level of permission provided by the user(s) of the A/Vrecording and communication device 102.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a system 200 forcommunicating in a network according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. Home automation, or smart home, is building automation forthe home. Home automation enables users (e.g., home owners andauthorized individuals) to control and/or automate various devicesand/or systems, such as lighting, heating (e.g., smart thermostats),ventilation, home entertainment, air conditioning (HVAC), blinds/shades,security devices (e.g., contact sensors, smoke/CO detectors, motionsensors, etc.), washers/dryers, ovens, refrigerators/freezers, and/orother network connected devices suitable for use in the home. In variousembodiments, Wi-Fi is used for remote monitoring and control of suchdevices and/or systems. Smart home devices (e.g., hub devices 202,sensors 204, automation devices 206, a virtual assistant (VA) device208, Audio/Video (A/V) recording and communication devices 210, etc.),when remotely monitored and controlled via a network (Internet/a publicswitched telephone network (PSTN)) 212, may be considered to becomponents of the “Internet of Things.” Smart home systems may includeswitches and/or sensors (e.g., the sensors 204) connected to a centralhub such as the smart-home hub device 202 and/or the VA device 208 (thehub device 202 and/or the VA device 208 may alternatively be referred toas a gateway, a controller, a home-automation hub, a communication hub,or an intelligent personal assistance device) from which the system maybe controlled through various user interfaces, such as voice commandsand/or a touchscreen. Various examples of user interfaces may includeany or all of a wall-mounted terminal (e.g., a keypad, a touchscreen,etc.), software installed on the client devices 214, 216 (e.g., a mobileapplication), a tablet computer, or a web interface. Furthermore, theseuser interfaces are often but not always supported by Internet cloudservices. In one example, the Internet cloud services are responsiblefor obtaining user input via the user interfaces (e.g., a user interfaceof the hub device 202 and/or the VA device 208) and causing the smarthome devices (e.g., the sensors 204, the automation devices 206, etc.)to perform an operation in response to the user input.

The hub device 202, the VA device 208, the sensors 204, the automationdevices 206, the A/V recording and communication devices 210, and/orclient devices 214, 216 may use one or more wired and/or wirelesscommunication protocols to communicate, including, for example andwithout limitation, Wi-Fi (e.g., the user's network 218), X10, Ethernet,RS-485, 6LoWPAN, Bluetooth LE (BLE), ZigBee, Z-Wave, and/or a low powerwide-area networks (LPWAN), such as a chirp spread spectrum (CSS)modulation technology network (e.g., LoRaWAN), an Ultra Narrow Bandmodulation technology network (e.g., Sigfox, Telensa, NB-IoT, etc.),RingNet, and/or the like.

The user's network 218 may be, for example, a wired and/or wirelessnetwork. If the user's network 218 is wireless, or includes a wirelesscomponent, the user's network 218 may be a Wi-Fi network compatible withthe IEEE 802.11 standard and/or other wireless communicationstandard(s). Furthermore, the user's network 218 may be connected toother networks such as the network 212, which may comprise, for example,the Internet and/or PSTN.

The system 200 may include one or more A/V recording and communicationdevices 210 (alternatively referred to herein as “A/V devices 210” or“A/V device 210”) (which may represent, and/or be similar to, the A/Vdevice 102 of FIG. 1). The A/V devices 210 may include security cameras210(a), light cameras 210(b) (e.g., floodlight cameras, spotlightcameras, etc.), video doorbells 210(c) (e.g., wall powered and/orbattery powered video doorbells), and/or other devices capable ofrecording audio data and/or image data. The A/V devices 210 may beconfigured to access a user's network 218 to connect to a network(Internet/PSTN) 212 and/or may be configured to access a cellularnetwork to connect to the network (Internet/PSTN) 212. The componentsand functionality of the A/V devices 210 are described in more detailbelow with respect to FIG. 3.

The system 200 may further include a hub device 202 connected to theuser's network 218 and/or the network (Internet/PSTN) 212. Thesmart-home hub device 202 (also known as a home automation hub, gatewaydevice, or network device), may comprise any device that facilitatescommunication with and control of the sensors 204, automation devices206, the VA device 208, and/or the one or more A/V devices 210. Forexample, the smart-home hub device 202 may be a component of a securitysystem and/or a home automation system installed at a location (e.g., aproperty, a premise, a home, a business, etc.). In some embodiments, theA/V devices 210, the VA device 208, the sensors 204, and/or theautomation devices 206 communicate with the smart-home hub device 202directly and/or indirectly using one or more wireless and/or wiredcommunication protocols (e.g., BLE, Zigbee, Z-Wave, etc.), the user'snetwork 218 (e.g., Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc.), and/or the network(Internet/PSTN) 212. In some of the present embodiments, the A/V devices210, the VA device 208, the sensors 204, and/or the automation devices206 may, in addition to or in lieu of communicating with the smart-homehub device 202, communicate with the client devices 214, 216, the VAdevice 208, and/or one or more of components of the network ofservers/backend devices 220 directly and/or indirectly via the user'snetwork 218 and/or the network (Internet/PSTN) 212.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the system 200 includes the VA device 208. TheVA device 208 may be connected to the user's network 218 and/or thenetwork (Internet/PSTN) 212. The VA device 208 may include anintelligent personal assistant, such as, without limitation, AmazonAlexa® and/or Apple Silica For example, the VA device 208 may beconfigured to receive voice commands, process the voice commands todetermine one or more actions and/or responses (e.g., transmit the voicecommands to the one or more components of the network of servers/backenddevices 220 for processing), and perform the one or more actions and/orresponses, such as to activate and/or change the status of one or moreof the sensors 204, automation devices 206, or A/V devices 210. In someembodiments, the VA device 208 is configured to process user inputs(e.g., voice commands) without transmitting information to the networkof servers/backend devices 220 for processing. The VA device 208 mayinclude at least one speaker (e.g., for playing music, for outputtingthe audio data generated by the A/V devices 210, for outputting thevoice of a digital assistant, etc.), at least one a microphone (e.g.,for receiving commands, for recording audio data, etc.), and a display(e.g., for displaying a user interface, for displaying the image datagenerated by the A/V devices 210, etc.). In various embodiments, the VAdevice 208 may include an array of speakers that are able to producebeams of sound. Although illustrated as a separate component in FIG. 2,in some embodiments the VA device 208 may not be a separate componentfrom the hub device 202. In such embodiments, the hub device 202 mayinclude the functionality of the VA device 208 or the VA device 208 mayinclude the functionality of the hub device 202.

The one or more sensors 204 may include, for example, at least one of adoor sensor, a window sensor, a contact sensor, a tilt sensor, atemperature sensor, a carbon monoxide sensor, a smoke detector, a lightsensor, a glass break sensor, a freeze sensor, a flood sensor, amoisture sensor, a motion sensor, and/or other sensors that may providethe user/owner of the security system a notification of a security eventat his or her property.

In various embodiments, a contact sensor may include any componentconfigured to inform (e.g., via a signal) the security system whether anobject (e.g., a door or a window) is open or closed. A contact sensormay include first and second components: a first component installed onthe object itself (e.g., the door or the window); the second componentinstalled next to the object (e.g., on the door jamb). The first andsecond components of the contact sensor, however, need not actually bein physical contact with one another in order to be in the closed (notfaulted) state. For example, at least one of the first and secondcomponents may include a magnet, and the contact sensor may rely on theHall effect for determining a proximity of the first and second piecesto one another. When the door, window, or other object, is opened, andthe first and second components move apart from one another, the contactsensor may transmit an open signal to the security system (e.g., to thehub device 202). A similar process may be performed when the object isclosed. In some examples, a signal transmitted by the security system bythe contact sensor during opening and/or closing may be the same signal,and the hub device 202 may interpret the signal based on the known stateof the object (e.g., when a door is closed, and the signal is received,the hub device 202 may update the status of the door to open).

The one or more automation devices 206 may include, for example, atleast one of an outdoor lighting system, an indoor lighting system, andindoor/outdoor lighting system, a temperature control system (e.g., athermostat), a shade/blind control system, a locking control system(e.g., door lock, window lock, etc.), a home entertainment automationsystem (e.g., TV control, sound system control, etc.), an irrigationcontrol system, a wireless signal range extender (e.g., a Wi-Fi rangeextender, a Z-Wave range extender, etc.) a doorbell chime, a barriercontrol device (e.g., an automated door hinge), a smart doormat, and/orother automation devices.

As described herein, in some of the present embodiments, some or all ofthe client devices 214, 216, the A/V device(s) 210, the smart-home hubdevice 202, the VA device 208, the sensors 204, and the automationdevices 206 may be referred to as a security system and/or ahome-automation system. The security system and/or home-automationsystem may be installed at a location, such as a property, building,home, business, or premises for the purpose of securing and/orautomating all or a portion of the location.

The system 200 may further include one or more client devices 214, 216(which may represent, and/or be similar to, the client device 102 ofFIG. 1). The client devices 214, 216 may communicate with and/or beassociated with (e.g., capable of access to and control of) the A/Vdevices 210, a smart-home hub device 202, the VA device 208, sensors204, and/or automation devices 206. In various embodiments, the clientdevices 214, 216 communicate with other devices using one or morewireless and/or wired communication protocols, the user's network,and/or the network (Internet/PSTN) 212, as described herein. The clientdevices 214, 216 may comprise, for example, a mobile device such as asmartphone or a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a computing devicesuch as a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, etc.In some embodiments, the client devices 214, 216 includes a connecteddevice, such as a smart watch, Bluetooth headphones, another wearabledevice, or the like. In such embodiments, the client devices 214, 216may include a combination of the smartphone or other device and aconnected device (e.g., a wearable device), such that alerts, data,and/or information received by the smartphone or other device areprovided to the connected device, and one or more controls of thesmartphone or other device may be input using the connected device(e.g., by touch, voice, etc.).

The A/V devices 210, the hub device 202, the VA device 208, theautomation devices 206, the sensors 204, and/or the client devices 214,216 may also communicate, via the user's network 218 and/or the network(Internet/PSTN) 212, with network(s) of servers and/or backend devices220, such as (but not limited to) one or more remote storage devices 222(which may be referred to interchangeably as “cloud storage device(s)”),one or more servers 224, and one or more backend application programminginterfaces (APIs) 226. While FIG. 2 illustrates the storage device 222,the server 224, and the API 226 as components separate from the network220, it is to be understood that the storage device 222, the server 224,and/or the API 226 may be considered to be components of the network220. For example, the network 220 may include a data center with aplurality of computing resources used to implement the storage device222, the server 224, and the API 226.

The server 224 may comprise a computer program or other computerexecutable code that, when executed by processor(s) of the server 224,causes the server 224 to wait for requests from other computer systemsor software (clients) and provide responses. In an embodiment, theserver 224 shares data and/or hardware and/or software resources amongthe client devices 214, 216. This architecture is called theclient-server model. The client devices 214, 216 may run on the samecomputer or may connect to the server 224 over the network(Internet/PSTN) 212 and/or the network 220. Examples of computingservers include database servers, file servers, mail servers, printservers, web servers, game servers, and application servers. The termserver may be construed broadly to include any computerized process thatshares a resource to one or more client processes.

The API 226 may comprise, for example, a server (e.g. a real server, ora virtual machine, or a machine running in a cloud infrastructure as aservice), or multiple servers networked together, exposing at least oneAPI to clients. In various embodiments, the API 226 is provided byservers including various components such as an application server (e.g.software servers), a caching layer, a database layer, or othercomponents suitable for implementing one or more APIs. The API 226 may,for example, comprise a plurality of applications, each of whichcommunicate with one another using one or more public APIs. In someembodiments, the API 226 maintains user data and provides usermanagement capabilities, thereby reducing the load (e.g., memory andprocessor consumption) of the client devices 214, 216.

In various embodiments, an API is a set of routines, protocols, andtools for building software and applications. Furthermore, the API maydescribe a software component in terms of its operations, inputs,outputs, and underlying types, defining functionalities that areindependent of their respective implementations, which allowsdefinitions and implementations to vary without compromising theinterface. As such, the API may provide a programmer with access to aparticular application's functionality without the need to modify theparticular application.

The API 226 illustrated in FIG. 2 may further include one or moreservices (also referred to as network services). A network service is anapplication that provides data storage, manipulation, presentation,communication, and/or other capability. Network services are oftenimplemented using a client-server architecture based onapplication-layer network protocols. Each service may be provided by aserver component (e.g., the server 224) running on one or more computers(such as a dedicated server computer offering multiple services) andaccessed via a network by client components running on other devices(e.g., client devices 214, 216). However, the client and servercomponents can both be run on the same machine. Clients and servers mayhave a user interface, and sometimes other hardware associated withthem.

The network 220 may be any wireless network, any wired network, or acombination thereof, configured to operatively couple theabove-mentioned modules, devices, components, and/or systems asillustrated in FIG. 2. For example, the network 220, the user's network218, and/or the network (Internet PSTN) 212 may include one or more ofthe following: a PSTN (public switched telephone network), the Internet,a local intranet, a PAN (Personal Area Network), a LAN (Local AreaNetwork), a WAN (Wide Area Network), a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network),a virtual private network (VPN), a storage area network (SAN), a framerelay connection, an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) connection, asynchronous optical network (SONET) connection, a digital T1, T3, E1 orE3 line, a Digital Data Service (DDS) connection, a DSL (DigitalSubscriber Line) connection, an Ethernet connection, an ISDN (IntegratedServices Digital Network) line, a dial-up port such as a V.90, V.34, orV.34bis analog modem connection, a cable modem, an ATM (AsynchronousTransfer Mode) connection, or an FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)or CDDI (Copper Distributed Data Interface) connection. Furthermore,communications may also include links to any of a variety of wirelessnetworks, including WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), GPRS (GeneralPacket Radio Service), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication),LTE, VoLTE, LoRaWAN, LPWAN, RPMA, LTE Cat-“X” (e.g. LTE Cat 1, LTE Cat0, LTE CatM1, LTE Cat NB1), CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), TDMA(Time Division Multiple Access), FDMA (Frequency Division MultipleAccess), and/or OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)cellular phone networks, satnav systems, global navigation satellitesystems (GNSS), such as global positioning systems (GPS), CDPD (cellulardigital packet data), RIM (Research in Motion, Limited) duplex pagingnetwork, Bluetooth radio, or an IEEE 802.11-based radio frequencynetwork. The network can further include or interface with any one ormore of the following: RS-232 serial connection, IEEE-4024 (Firewire)connection, Fibre Channel connection, IrDA (infrared) port, SCSI (SmallComputer Systems Interface) connection, USB (Universal Serial Bus)connection, or other wired or wireless, digital or analog, interface orconnection, mesh or Digi® networking.

The hub device 202, the VA device 208, and/or any of the components ofthe network(s) of servers/backend devices 220 (e.g., the server 224, theAPI 226, the storage devices 222, etc.) may be referred to herein as a“network device” or “network devices.” The network-connected device 110of FIG. 1 may include one or more of the network devices describedherein.

With further reference to FIG. 2, the system 200 may also include asecurity monitoring service 228. The security monitoring service 228 maybe operated by the same company that manufactures, sells, and/ordistributes the A/V devices 210, the hub device 202, the VA device 208,the sensors 204, and/or the automation devices 206. In otherembodiments, the security monitoring service 228 may be operated by athird-party company (e.g., a different company than the one thatmanufactured, sold, and/or distributed the A/V devices 210, the hubdevice 202, the VA device 208, the sensors 204, and/or the automationdevices 206). In any of the present embodiments, the security monitoringservice 228 may have control of at least some of the features andcomponents of the security system and/or the home-automation system(e.g., the security monitoring service 228 may be able to arm and/ordisarm the security system, lock and/or unlock doors, activate and/ordeactivate one or more of the sensors 204 and/or the automation devices206, etc.). For example, the security monitoring service 228 may operateand control its own client devices and/or network of servers/backenddevices for monitoring and/or controlling security systems. In such anexample, the A/V devices 210, the hub device 202, the VA device 208, thesensors 204, and/or the automation devices 206 may communicate with theclient devices and/or one or more components of the network ofservers/backend devices of the security monitoring service 228 over thenetwork (Internet/PSTN) 212 (in some embodiments, via one or more of thecomponents of the network of servers/backend devices 220).

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram for an audio/video (A/V) deviceaccording to various aspects of the present disclosure. In someembodiments, the one or more A/V devices 210 may include the securitycamera 210(a). In other embodiments, the one or more A/V devices 210 mayinclude the light camera 210(b), which may include some or all of thecomponents of the security camera 210(a) in addition to a lightcontroller 302 and one or more lights 304(a), 304(b). In someembodiments, the one or more A/V devices 210 may include the videodoorbell 210(c), which may include some or all of the components of thesecurity camera 210(a) in addition to a button 306, and in someembodiments, a connection to a signaling device 308 (e.g., apre-installed signaling device, such as a wired signaling device, and/ora wireless signaling device, connected over Wi-Fi, BLE, or anotherwireless communication protocol).

With further reference to FIG. 3, the A/V device 210 may include one ormore processor(s) 310, a communication module 312, a camera 314, acomputer vision module 316, a light sensor 318, an audio CODEC(coder-decoder) 320, volatile memory 322, and non-volatile memory 324.The processor(s) 310 (alternatively referred to herein as a “CPU,” a“controller,” and/or a “microcontroller) may comprise an integratedcircuit including a processor core, memory, and programmableinput/output peripherals. The processor(s) 310 may receive inputsignals, such as data and/or power, from the camera 314, motionsensor(s) 326, light sensor 318, microphone(s) 328, speaker(s) 330,and/or the communication module 312, and may perform various functionsas described in the present disclosure. In various embodiments, when theprocessor(s) 310 is triggered by the motion sensor(s) 326, the camera314, the speaker(s) 330, the microphone(s) 328, the communication module312, and/or another component, the processor(s) 310 performs one or moreprocesses and/or functions. For example, when the light sensor 318detects a low level of ambient light, the light sensor 318 may triggerthe processor(s) 310 to enable a night vision camera mode. Theprocessor(s) 310 may also provide data communication between variouscomponents such as between the communication module 312 and the camera314.

With further reference to FIG. 3, the communication module 312 maycomprise an integrated circuit including a processor core, memory, andprogrammable input/output peripherals. The communication module 312 maybe operatively connected to the processor(s) 310. In some embodiments,the communication module 312 is configured to handle communication linksbetween the A/V device 210 and other, external devices, externalreceivers, external transmitters, and/or external transceivers,including client device 214, 216 and to route incoming/outgoing dataappropriately. For example, inbound data from an antenna 332 of thecommunication module 312 may be routed through the communication module312 before being directed to the processor(s) 310, and outbound datafrom the processor(s) 310 may be routed through the communication module312 before being directed to the antenna 332 of the communication module312. As another example, the communication module 312 may be configuredto transmit data to and/or receive data from a remote network device(e.g., one or more components of the network(s) of servers/backenddevices 220 described in FIG. 2). The communication module 312 mayinclude wireless 334(a) and wired 334(b) adapters. For example, thecommunication module 312 may include one or more wireless antennas,radios, receivers, transmitters, and/or transceivers (not shown in FIG.3 for simplicity) configured to enable communication across one or morewireless networks, such as, without limitation, Wi-Fi, cellular,Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Zigbee, LPWAN(s), and/or satellite networks. Thecommunication module 312 may receive inputs, such as power and/or data,from the camera 314, the processor(s) 310, the button 306 (inembodiments where the A/V device 210 is the video doorbell 210(c)), themotion sensors 326, a reset button (not shown in FIG. 3 for simplicity),and/or the non-volatile memory 324. The communication module 312 mayalso include the capability of communicating over wired connections,such as with a signaling device 308. For example, when the button 306 ofthe video doorbell 210(c) is pressed, the communication module 312 maybe triggered to perform one or more functions, such as to transmit asignal over the wired 334(b) connection to the signaling device 308(although, in some embodiments, the signal may be transmitted over awireless 334(a) connection to the signaling device) to cause thesignaling device 308 to emit a sound (e.g., a doorbell tone, a usercustomized sound, a ringtone, a seasonal ringtone, etc.). Thecommunication module 312 may also act as a conduit for data communicatedbetween various components and the processor(s) 310.

With further reference to FIG. 3, the A/V device 210 may include thenon-volatile memory 324 and the volatile memory 322. The non-volatilememory 324 may comprise flash memory configured to store and/or transmitdata. For example, in certain embodiments the non-volatile memory 324may comprise serial peripheral interface (SPI) flash memory. In someembodiments, the non-volatile memory 324 may comprise, for example, NANDor NOR flash memory. The volatile memory 322 may comprise, for example,DDR3 SDRAM (double data rate type three synchronous dynamicrandom-access memory). In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, thevolatile memory 322 and the non-volatile memory 324 are illustrated asbeing separate from the processor(s) 310. However, the illustration ofFIG. 3 is not intended to be limiting, and in some embodiments thevolatile memory 322 and/or the non-volatile memory 324 may be physicallyincorporated with the processor(s) 310, such as on the same chip. Thevolatile memory 322 and/or the non-volatile memory 324, regardless oftheir physical location, may be shared by one or more other components(in addition to the processor(s) 310) of the present A/V device 210.

With further reference to FIG. 3, the A/V device 210 may include thecamera 314. The camera 314 may include an image sensor 336. The imagesensor 336 may include a video recording sensor and/or a camera chip. Inone aspect of the present disclosure, the image sensor 336 may comprisea complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) array and may becapable of recording high definition (e.g., 720p, 1800p, 4K, etc.) videofiles. The camera 314 may include a separate camera processor (not shownin FIG. 3 for simplicity), or the processor(s) 310 may perform thecamera processing functionality. The processor(s) 310 (and/or cameraprocessor) may include an encoding and compression chip. In someembodiments, the processor(s) 310 (and/or the camera processor) maycomprise a bridge processor. The processor(s) 310 (and/or the cameraprocessor) may process video recorded by the image sensor 336 and/oraudio recorded by the microphone(s) 328, and may transform this datainto a form suitable for transfer by the communication module 312 to thenetwork (Internet/PSTN) 212. In various embodiments, the camera 314 alsoincludes memory, such as volatile memory that may be used when data isbeing buffered or encoded by the processor(s) 310 (and/or the cameraprocessor). For example, in certain embodiments the camera memory maycomprise synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SD RAM).

The camera 314 may further include an IR cut filter 338 that maycomprise a system that, when triggered, configures the image sensor 336to see primarily infrared light as opposed to visible light. Forexample, when the light sensor 318 detects a low level of ambient light(which may comprise a level that impedes the performance of the imagesensor 336 in the visible spectrum), the light emitting components 340may shine infrared light through an enclosure of the A/V device 210 outto the environment, and the IR cut filter 338 may enable the imagesensor 336 to see this infrared light as it is reflected or refractedoff of objects within the field of view of the doorbell. This processmay provide the A/V device with the “night vision” function mentionedabove.

With further reference to FIG. 3, the recording and communication A/Vdevice 210 may comprise the light sensor 318 and the one or morelight-emitting components 340, such as LED's. The light sensor 318 maybe one or more sensors capable of detecting the level of ambient lightof the surrounding environment in which the A/V device 210 may belocated. The light-emitting components 340 may be one or morelight-emitting diodes capable of producing visible light when suppliedwith power (e.g., to enable night vision). In some embodiments, whenactivated, the light-emitting components 340 illuminates a light pipe.

The A/V device 210 may further include one or more speaker(s) 330 and/orone or more microphone(s) 328. The speaker(s) 330 may be anyelectromechanical device capable of producing sound in response to anelectrical signal input. The microphone(s) 328 may be anacoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor capable of converting soundwaves into an electrical signal. In some embodiments, the A/V device 210may include two or more microphone(s) 328 that are spaced from oneanother (e.g., located on different sides of the A/V device 210) toprovide noise cancelling and/or echo cancelling for clearer audio. Thespeaker(s) 330 and/or microphone(s) 328 may be coupled to an audio CODEC320 to enable digital audio received by client devices to bedecompressed and output by the speaker(s) 330 and/or to enable audiodata captured by the microphone(s) 328 to be compressed into digitalaudio data. The digital audio data may be received from and transmittedto client devices using the communication module 312 (in someembodiments, through one or more intermediary devices such as the hubdevice 202, the VA device 208, and/or one or more components of thenetwork of servers/backend devices 220 as described in FIG. 2). Forexample, when a visitor (or intruder) who is present in the area aboutthe A/V device 210 speaks, sound from the visitor (or intruder) isreceived by the microphone(s) 328 and compressed by the audio CODEC 320.Digital audio data is then sent through the communication module 312 tothe network 212 via the user's network 218, routed by the server 224and/or the API 226 and delivered to the client device(s) 214, 216 asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 2. When the user speaks, afterbeing transferred through the network 212, the user's network 218, andthe communication module 312, the digital audio data from the user isdecompressed by the audio CODEC 320 and emitted to the visitor throughthe speaker(s) 330.

With further reference to FIG. 3, the A/V device 210 may be batterypowered using a battery 342 and/or may be powered using a source ofexternal AC (alternating-current) power, such as a household AC powersupply (alternatively referred to herein as “AC mains” or “wall power”).The AC power may have a voltage in the range of 110-220 VAC, forexample. The incoming AC power may be received by an AC/DC adapter (notshown), which may convert the incoming AC power to DC (direct-current)and may step down the voltage from 110-220 VAC to a lower output voltageof about 12 VDC and an output current of about 2 A, for example. Invarious embodiments, the output of the AC/DC adapter is in a range fromabout 9 V to about 15 V and in a range from about 0.5 A to about 5 A.These voltages and currents are examples provided for illustration andare not intended to be limiting.

However, in other embodiments, a battery 342 may not be included. Inembodiments that include the battery 342, the A/V device 210 may includean integrated circuit (not shown) capable of arbitrating betweenmultiple voltage rails, thereby selecting the source of power for theA/V device 210. The A/V device 210 may have separate power railsdedicated to the battery 342 and the AC power source. In one aspect ofthe present disclosure, the A/V device 210 may continuously draw powerfrom the battery 342 to power the A/V device 210, while at the same timerouting the AC power to the battery, thereby allowing the battery 342 tomaintain a substantially constant level of charge. Alternatively, theA/V device 210 may continuously draw power from the AC power to powerthe doorbell, while only drawing from the battery 342 when the AC poweris low or insufficient. Still, in some embodiments, the battery 342comprises the sole source of power for the A/V device 210. In suchembodiments, the components of the A/V device 210 (e.g., springcontacts, connectors, etc.) are not to be connected to a source of ACpower. When the battery 342 is depleted of its charge, it may berecharged, such as by connecting a power source to the battery 342(e.g., using a USB connector).

Although not illustrated in FIG. 3, in some embodiments, the A/V device210 may include one or more of an accelerometer, a barometer, a humiditysensor, and a temperature sensor. The accelerometer may be one or moresensors capable of sensing motion and/or acceleration. The one or moreof the accelerometer, the barometer, the humidity sensor, and thetemperature sensor may be located outside of a housing of the A/V device210 so as to reduce interference from heat, pressure, moisture, and/orother stimuli generated by the internal components of the A/V device210.

With further reference to FIG. 3, the A/V device 210 may include one ormore motion sensor(s) 326. However, in some embodiments, the motionsensor(s) 326 may not be included, such as where motion detection isperformed by the camera 314 or another device. The motion sensor(s) 326may be any type of sensor capable of detecting and communicating thepresence of an entity within their field of view. As such, the motionsensor(s) 326 may include one or more (alone or in combination)different types of motion sensors. For example, in some embodiments, themotion sensor(s) 326 may comprise passive infrared (PIR) sensors, whichmay be secured on or within a PIR sensor holder that may reside behind alens (e.g., a Fresnel lens). In such an example, the PIR sensors maydetect IR radiation in a field of view, and produce an output signal(typically a voltage) that changes as the amount of IR radiation in thefield of view changes. The amount of voltage in the output signal may becompared, by the processor(s) 310, for example, to one or more thresholdvoltage values to determine if the amount of voltage in the outputsignal is indicative of motion, and/or if the amount of voltage in theoutput signal is indicative of motion of an entity that is to becaptured by the camera 314 (e.g., motion of a person and/or animal mayprompt activation of the camera 314, while motion of a vehicle may not).Although the above discussion of the motion sensor(s) 326 primarilyrelates to PIR sensors, depending on the embodiment, the motionsensor(s) 326 may include additional and/or alternate sensor types thatproduce output signals including alternative data types. For example,and without limitation, the output signal may include an amount ofvoltage change based on the presence of infrared radiation in a field ofview of an active infrared (AIR) sensor, the output signal may includephase shift data from a microwave-type motion sensor, the output signalmay include doppler shift data from an ultrasonic-type motion sensor,the output signal may include radio wave disturbance from atomographic-type motion sensor, and/or the output signal may includeother data types for other sensor types that may be used as the motionsensor(s) 326 of the A/V device 210.

In some embodiments, computer vision module(s) (CVM) 316 may be includedin the A/V device 210 as the motion sensor(s) 326, in addition to, oralternatively separate from, other motion sensor(s) 326. For example,the CVM 316 may be a low-power CVM (e.g., Qualcomm Glance®) that, byoperating at low power (e.g., less than 2 mW of end-to-end power), iscapable of providing computer vision capabilities and functionality forbattery powered devices (e.g., the A/V device 210 when powered by thebattery 342). The low-power CVM may include a lens, a CMOS image sensor,and a digital processor that may perform embedded processing within thelow-power CVM itself, such that the low-power CVM may outputpost-processed computer vision metadata to the processor(s) 310 (e.g.,via a serial peripheral bus interface (SPI)). As such, the low-power CVMmay be considered to be one or more of the motion sensor(s) 326, and thedata type output in the output signal may be the post-processed computervision metadata. The metadata may include information such as thepresence of a particular type of entity (e.g., person, animal, vehicle,parcel, etc.), a direction of movement of the entity, a distance of theentity from the A/V device 210, etc. In various embodiments, the motionsensor(s) 326 include a plurality of different sensor types capable ofdetecting motion such as PIR, AIR, low-power CVM, and/or cameras.

As indicated above, the A/V device 210 may include the CVM 316 (whichmay be the same as the above described low-power CVM 316 implemented asone or more motion sensor(s) 326, or may be additional to, oralternatively separate from, the above described low-power CVM 316). Forexample, the A/V device 210, the hub device 202, the VA device 208,and/or one or more component of the network(s) of servers/backenddevices 220 may perform any or all of the computer vision processes andfunctionalities described herein. In addition, although the CVM 316 isonly illustrated as a component of the A/V device 210, the computervision module 316 may additionally, or alternatively, be included as acomponent of the hub device 202, the VA device 208, and/or one or morecomponents of the network of servers/backend devices 220. With respectto the A/V device 210, the CVM 316 may include any of the components(e.g., hardware) and/or functionality described herein with respect tocomputer vision, including, without limitation, one or more cameras,sensors, and/or processors. In some of the present embodiments, withreference to FIG. 3, the microphone(s) 328, the camera 314, theprocessor(s) 310, and/or the image sensor 336 may be components of theCVM 316. In some embodiments, the CVM 316 may include an internalcamera, image sensor, and/or processor, and the CVM 316 may output datato the processor(s) 310 in an output signal, for example.

As a result of including the CVM 316, some of the present embodimentsmay leverage the CVM 316 to implement computer vision for one or moreaspects, such as motion detection, object recognition, and/or facialrecognition. Computer vision includes methods for acquiring, processing,analyzing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensionaldata from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolicinformation, e.g., in the form of decisions. Computer vision seeks toduplicate the abilities of human vision by electronically perceiving andunderstanding an image. Understanding in this context means thetransformation of visual images (the input of the retina) intodescriptions of the world that can interface with other thoughtprocesses and elicit appropriate action. This image understanding can beseen as the disentangling of symbolic information from image data usingmodels constructed with the aid of geometry, physics, statistics, andlearning theory. Computer vision has also been described as theenterprise of automating and integrating a wide range of processes andrepresentations for vision perception. As a scientific discipline,computer vision is concerned with the theory behind artificial systemsthat extract information from images. The image data can take manyforms, such as video sequences, views from multiple cameras, ormulti-dimensional data from a scanner.

One aspect of computer vision comprises determining whether or not theimage data contains some specific object, feature, or activity.Different varieties of computer vision recognition include: ObjectRecognition (also called object classification)—One or severalpre-specified or learned objects or object classes can be recognized,usually together with their 2D positions in the image or 3D poses in thescene. Identification—An individual instance of an object is recognized.Examples include identification of a specific person's face orfingerprint, identification of handwritten digits, or identification ofa specific vehicle. Detection—The image data are scanned for a specificcondition. Examples include detection of possible abnormal cells ortissues in medical images or detection of a vehicle in an automatic roadtoll system. Detection based on relatively simple and fast computationsis sometimes used for finding smaller regions of interesting image datathat can be further analyzed by more computationally demandingtechniques to produce a correct interpretation.

Several specialized tasks based on computer vision recognition exist,such as: Optical Character Recognition (OCR)—Identifying characters inimages of printed or handwritten text, usually with a view to encodingthe text in a format more amenable to editing or indexing (e.g., ASCII).2D Code Reading—Reading of 2D codes such as data matrix and QR codes.Facial Recognition. Shape Recognition Technology (SRT)—Differentiatinghuman beings (e.g., head and shoulder patterns) from objects.

Image acquisition—A digital image is produced by one or several imagesensors, which, besides various types of light-sensitive cameras, mayinclude range sensors, tomography devices, radar, ultra-sonic cameras,etc. Depending on the type of sensor, the resulting image data may be a2D image, a 3D volume, or an image sequence. The pixel values maycorrespond to light intensity in one or several spectral bands (grayimages or color images), but can also be related to various physicalmeasures, such as depth, absorption or reflectance of sonic orelectromagnetic waves, or nuclear magnetic resonance.

Pre-processing—Before a computer vision method can be applied to imagedata in order to extract some specific piece of information, it isusually beneficial to process the data in order to ensure that itsatisfies certain assumptions implied by the method. Examples ofpre-processing include, but are not limited to re-sampling in order toensure that the image coordinate system is correct, noise reduction inorder to ensure that sensor noise does not introduce false information,contrast enhancement to ensure that relevant information can bedetected, and scale space representation to enhance image structures atlocally appropriate scales.

Feature extraction—Image features at various levels of complexity areextracted from the image data. Typical examples of such features are:Lines, edges, and ridges; Localized interest points such as corners,blobs, or points; More complex features may be related to texture,shape, or motion.

Detection/segmentation—At some point in the processing a decision may bemade about which image points or regions of the image are relevant forfurther processing. Examples are: Selection of a specific set ofinterest points; Segmentation of one or multiple image regions thatcontain a specific object of interest; Segmentation of the image intonested scene architecture comprising foreground, object groups, singleobjects, or salient object parts (also referred to as spatial-taxonscene hierarchy).

High-level processing—At this step, the input may be a small set ofdata, for example a set of points or an image region that is assumed tocontain a specific object. The remaining processing may comprise, forexample: Verification that the data satisfy model-based andapplication-specific assumptions; Estimation of application-specificparameters, such as object pose or object size; Imagerecognition—classifying a detected object into different categories;Image registration—comparing and combining two different views of thesame object.

Decision making—Making the final decision required for the application,for example match/no-match in recognition applications.

One or more of the present embodiments may include a vision processingunit (not shown separately, but may be a component of the CVM 316). Avision processing unit is an emerging class of microprocessor; it is aspecific type of AI (artificial intelligence) accelerator designed toaccelerate machine vision tasks. Vision processing units are distinctfrom video processing units (which are specialized for video encodingand decoding) in their suitability for running machine vision algorithmssuch as convolutional neural networks, SIFT, etc. Vision processingunits may include direct interfaces to take data from cameras (bypassingany off-chip buffers), and may have a greater emphasis on on-chipdataflow between many parallel execution units with scratchpad memory,like a manycore DSP (digital signal processor). But, like videoprocessing units, vision processing units may have a focus on lowprecision fixed-point arithmetic for image processing.

Some of the present embodiments may use facial recognition hardwareand/or software, as a part of the computer vision system. Various typesof facial recognition exist, some or all of which may be used in thepresent embodiments.

Some face recognition algorithms identify facial features by extractinglandmarks, or features, from an image of the subject's face. Forexample, an algorithm may analyze the relative position, size, and/orshape of the eyes, nose, cheekbones, and jaw. These features are thenused to search for other images with matching features. Other algorithmsnormalize a gallery of face images and then compress the face data, onlysaving the data in the image that is useful for face recognition. Aprobe image is then compared with the face data. One of the earliestsuccessful systems is based on template matching techniques applied to aset of salient facial features, providing a sort of compressed facerepresentation.

Recognition algorithms can be divided into two main approaches,geometric, which looks at distinguishing features, or photometric, whichis a statistical approach that distills an image into values andcompares the values with templates to eliminate variances.

Popular recognition algorithms include principal component analysisusing eigenfaces, linear discriminant analysis, elastic bunch graphmatching using the Fisherface algorithm, the hidden Markov model, themultilinear subspace learning using tensor representation, and theneuronal motivated dynamic link matching.

Further, a newly emerging trend, claimed to achieve improved accuracy,is three-dimensional face recognition. This technique uses 3D sensors tocapture information about the shape of a face. This information is thenused to identify distinctive features on the surface of a face, such asthe contour of the eye sockets, nose, and chin.

One advantage of 3D face recognition is that it is not affected bychanges in lighting like other techniques. It can also identify a facefrom a range of viewing angles, including a profile view.Three-dimensional data points from a face vastly improve the precisionof face recognition. 3D research is enhanced by the development ofsophisticated sensors that do a better job of capturing 3D face imagery.The sensors work by projecting structured light onto the face. Up to adozen or more of these image sensors can be placed on the same CMOSchip—each sensor captures a different part of the spectrum.

Another variation is to capture a 3D picture by using three trackingcameras that point at different angles; one camera pointing at the frontof the subject, a second one to the side, and a third one at an angle.All these cameras work together to track a subject's face in real timeand to enable face detection and recognition.

Another emerging trend uses the visual details of the skin, as capturedin standard digital or scanned images. This technique, called skintexture analysis, turns the unique lines, patterns, and spots apparentin a person's skin into a mathematical space.

Another form of taking input data for face recognition is by usingthermal cameras, which may only detect the shape of the head and ignorethe subject accessories such as glasses, hats, or make up.

Further examples of automatic identification and data capture (AIDC)and/or computer vision that can be used in the present embodiments toverify the identity and/or authorization of a person include, withoutlimitation, biometrics. Biometrics refers to metrics related to humancharacteristics. Biometrics authentication (or realistic authentication)is used in various forms of identification and access control. Biometricidentifiers are the distinctive, measurable characteristics used tolabel and describe individuals. Biometric identifiers can bephysiological characteristics and/or behavioral characteristics.Physiological characteristics may be related to the shape of the body.Examples include, but are not limited to, fingerprints, palm veins,facial recognition, three-dimensional facial recognition, skin textureanalysis, DNA, palm prints, hand geometry, iris recognition, retinarecognition, and odor/scent recognition. Behavioral characteristics maybe related to the pattern of behavior of a person, including, but notlimited to, typing rhythm, gait, and voice recognition.

The present embodiments may use any one, or any combination of more thanone, of the foregoing biometrics to identify and/or authenticate aperson who is either authorized or not authorized to take certainactions with respect to a property or expensive item of collateral. Forexample, with reference to FIG. 3, the CVM 316, and/or the camera 314and/or the processor(s) 310 may receive information about the personusing any one, or any combination of more than one, of the foregoingbiometrics.

Again, with reference to FIG. 3, in embodiments where the A/V device 210includes a light camera, the A/V device 210 may include the lightcontroller 302 and one or more lights 304(a), 304(b) (collectivelyreferred to herein as “lights 304”). The light controller 302 mayinclude a switch for controlling the lights 304. For example, inresponse to the motion sensor(s) 326 and/or the camera 314 detectingmotion, the light controller 302 may receive an output signal from theprocessor(s) 310 that causes the light controller 302 to activate theone or more lights 304(a), 304(b). In some embodiments, the light cameramay include motion sensor(s) 326 detecting motion for controllingactivation of the lights 304, and may further include the camera 314 fordetecting motion for activating the recording of the image data usingthe camera 314 and/or the recording of the audio data using themicrophone(s) 328. In other embodiments, the motion sensor(s) 326 maydetect the motion for activating the lights 304, the camera 314, and themicrophone(s) 328, or the camera 314 may detect the motion foractivating the lights 304, the camera 314 to begin recording the imagedata, and the microphone(s) 328 to begin recording the audio data. Thelights 304 may include floodlights, spotlights, porch lights, or anothertype of illumination device. The lights 304 may provide for better imagedata quality when ambient light levels are low (e.g., at dusk, dawn, ornight), while also providing a deterrent effect by being illuminatedwhen motion is detected.

With further reference to FIG. 3, in embodiments where the A/V device210 includes a doorbell, such as the video doorbell 210(c), the A/Vdevice 210 may include the button 306. In embodiments where the button306 is a mechanical button (e.g., has a range of movement), the button306 may make contact with a button actuator located within the videodoorbell 210(c) when the button 306 is pressed. In embodiments where thebutton 306 is not mechanical (e.g., has no range of motion), the button306 may include a capacitive touch button, a resistive touch button, asurface acoustic wave (SAW) button, an infrared (IR) button, an opticalimaging button, an acoustic pulse recognition button, and/or a buttonthat implements a low-power CVM for the detection of a person (e.g., afinger, hand, etc., of a person). When the button 306 is pressed,touched, and/or otherwise triggered, the processor(s) 310 may receive anoutput signal from the button 306 that may activate one or morefunctions of the video doorbell 210(c), such as transmitting an outputsignal, using the communication module 312, to the signaling device 308to cause the signaling device 308 to output a sound (e.g., via the wired334(b) connection to the signaling device 308 and/or a wireless 334(a)connection to the signaling device 308). In addition, the processor(s)310 may transmit an output signal (e.g., a message), using thecommunication module 312, to the client device(s) 214, 216 to indicateto the user(s) of the client device(s) 214, 216 that a person is presentat the A/V device 210 (in some embodiments, via at least one of the hubdevice 202, the VA device 208, and/or one or more components of thenetwork of servers/backend devices 220).

Although the A/V recording and communication device 210 (or A/V device210) is referred to herein as an “audio/video” device, the A/V device210 need not have both audio and video functionality. For example, insome embodiments, the A/V device 210 may not include the speakers 330,microphones 328, and/or audio CODEC. In such examples, the A/V device210 may only have video recording and communication functionalities. Inother examples, the A/V device 210 may only have the speaker(s) 330 andnot the microphone(s) 328, or may only have the microphone(s) 328 andnot the speaker(s) 330.

FIG. 4 is another functional block diagram illustrating an embodiment ofthe A/V device 210 according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. In some embodiments, the A/V device 210 may represent, andfurther include one or more of the components from, the A/V recordingand communication doorbell 210(c), the A/V recording and communicationsecurity camera 210(a), and/or the floodlight controller 210(b).Additionally, in some embodiments, the A/V device 210 may omit one ormore of the components shown in FIG. 4 and/or may include one or moreadditional components not shown in FIG. 4.

As shown in FIG. 4, the A/V device 210 includes memory 402, which mayrepresent the volatile memory 322 and/or the non-volatile memory 324.The memory 402 stores a device application 404. In various embodiments,the device application 404 may configure the processor(s) 310 to captureimage data 406 using the camera 314, audio data 408 using themicrophone(s) 328, input data 410 using the button 306 (and/or thecamera 314 and/or the motion sensor(s) 326, depending on theembodiment), and/or motion data 412 using the camera 314 and/or themotion sensor(s) 326. In some embodiments, the device application 404may also configure the processor(s) 310 to generate text data 414describing the image data 406, the audio data 408, and/or the input data410, such as in the form of metadata, for example.

In addition, the device application 404 may configure the processor(s)310 to transmit the image data 406, the audio data 408, the motion data412, the input data 410, the text data 414, and/or message(s) 416 to theclient devices 214, 216, the hub device 202, and/or the server 224 usingthe communication module 312. In various embodiments, the deviceapplication 404 may also configure the processor(s) 310 to generate andtransmit an output signal 418 that may include the image data 406, theaudio data 408, the text data 414, the input data 410, and/or the motiondata 412. In some of the present embodiments, the output signal 418 maybe transmitted to the server 224 and/or the hub device 202 using thecommunication module 312. The server 224 may then transmit (or forward)the output signal 418 to the client device(s) 214, 216, and/or the hubdevice 202 may then transmit (or forward) the output signal 418 to theclient device(s) 214, 216, and/or the hub device 202 may then transmit(or forward) the output signal 418 to the server 224, and the server 224may then transmit (or forward) the output signal 418 to the clientdevice(s) 214, 216. In other embodiments, the output signal 418 may betransmitted directly to the client device(s) 214, 216 by the A/V device210.

In further reference to FIG. 4, the image data 406 may comprise imagesensor data such as (but not limited to) exposure values and dataregarding pixel values for a particular sized grid. The image data 406may include still images, live video, and/or pre-recorded images and/orvideo. The image data 406 may be recorded by the camera 314 in a fieldof view of the camera 314.

In further reference to FIG. 4, the motion data 412 may comprise motionsensor data generated in response to motion events. For example, themotion data 412 may include an amount or level of a data type generatedby the motion sensor(s) 326 (e.g., the voltage level output by themotion sensor(s) 326 when the motion sensor(s) 326 are PIR type motionsensor(s)). In some of the present embodiments, such as those where theA/V device 210 does not include the motion sensor(s) 326, the motiondata 412 may be generated by the camera 314. In such embodiments, basedon a frame by frame comparison of changes in the pixels from the imagedata 406, it may be determined that motion is present.

The input data 410 may include data generated in response to an input tothe button 306. The button 306 may receive an input (e.g., a press, atouch, a series of touches and/or presses, etc.) and may generate theinput data 410 in response that is indicative of the type of input. Inembodiments where the A/V device 210 is not a doorbell (e.g., the videodoorbell 210(c)), the A/V device 210 may not include the button 306, andthe A/V device 210 may not generate the input data 410.

With further reference to FIG. 4, a message 416 may be generated by theprocessor(s) 310 and transmitted, using the communication module 312, tothe client device 214, 216, the server 224, and/or the hub device 202.For example, in response to detecting motion using the camera 314 and/orthe motion sensor(s) 326, the A/V device 210 may generate and transmitthe message 416. In some of the present embodiments, the message 416 mayinclude at least the image data 406, the audio data 408, the text data414, and/or the motion data 412.

As described herein, the message(s) 416 may include messages, signals,data, notifications, and/or any type of electronic communication thatelectronic devices (e.g., the A/V device 210, the client device 214,216, the hub device 202, and/or one or more components of the network(s)of servers/backend devices 220) may transmit and receive with otherelectronic devices (e.g., the A/V device 210, the client device 214,216, the hub device 202, and/or one or more components of the network(s)of servers/backend devices 220). For instance, message(s) 416 mayinclude push notifications, email messages, short message service (SMS)messages, multimedia service (MMS) messages, voicemail messages, videosignals, audio signals, data transmissions, and/or any other type ofelectronic communication that an electronic device can send to anotherelectronic device.

The image data 406, the audio data 408, the text data 414, and/or themotion data 412 may be tagged (e.g., with a time stamp, based on clockdata) and/or stored separately (e.g., on the server 224, the hub device202, and/or the A/V device 210) based on when the motion was detected,how long the motion was detected for, and/or a duration of timeassociated with the detected motion, or motion event (e.g., the durationof time may include the time the motion was detected plus an additionaltime, such as, without limitation, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, or 30seconds). For example, each separate detection of motion, or motionevent, may be associated with image data 406, audio data 408, text data414, and/or motion data 412 representative of the detection of motion,or motion event. As a result, when a request for data pertaining toparticular motion event, or a particular time period, is received (e.g.,by the client device 214, 216, the server 224, and/or the hub device202), the image data 406, the audio data 408, the text data 414, and/orthe motion data 412 associated with a particular motion event, and/orassociated with motion event(s) within the particular time period, maybe transmitted, retrieved, and/or received.

Although examples discuss the A/V device 210 generating and transmittingthe image data 406, the audio data 408, the text data 414, and/or themotion data 412 when motion is detected (e.g., in the message 416), inother examples the data may be generated and/or transmitted at othertimes. For example, the image data 406, the audio data 408, the textdata 414, and/or the motion data 412 may be generated and transmittedcontinuously (e.g., in a streaming manner), periodically, upon request,etc. In examples where the image data 406, the audio data 408, the textdata 414, and/or the motion data 412 may be generated and transmittedcontinuously, the detection of motion (e.g., a motion event) may causean indication of when the motion was detected (e.g., a time stamp)and/or how long the motion was detected for (e.g., a duration) to beassociated with the image data 406, the audio data 408, the text data414, and/or the motion data 412. As a result, even though the image data406, the audio data 408, the text data 414, and/or the motion data 412may be continuously generated by the A/V device 210, the image data 406,the audio data 408, the text data 414, and/or the motion data 412associated with motion events may be tagged and/or stored separately(e.g., similar to that of the image data 406, the audio data 408, thetext data 414, and/or the motion data 412 generated in response to thedetection of motion), from the image data 406, the audio data 408, thetext data 414, and/or the motion data 412 that is not associated withmotion events.

As described herein, at least some of the processes of the server 224,the hub device 202, and/or the client device 214, 216 may be executed bythe A/V device 210. For instance, the A/V device 210 may receive andlocally store identifying information for the wireless device 118 knownto be associated with criminal activity. The A/V device 210 may decode areceived signal from the wireless device 118 and determine whether thereceived signal is from the wireless device 118 known to be associatedwith criminal activity. Although this function may be performed by theserver 224, for example, the A/V device 210 having the ability toperform this function may provide advantages for the disclosed systemsand methods including, without limitation, freeing bandwidth andprocessing resources of the server 224. In the disclosed systems andmethods, whether or not various functions may be performed, whereavailable, by the A/V device 210 instead of or in addition to the server224 may be dictated by the user of the A/V device 210.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment of theserver 224 according to various aspects of the present disclosure. Theserver 224 may comprise processor(s) 502 (which may be similar to,and/or include similar functionality as, the processor(s) 310), acommunication module 504 (which may be similar to, and/or includesimilar functionality as, the communication module 312), and a memory506 (which may be similar to, and/or include similar functionality as,the memory 402). The communication module 504 may allow the server 224to access and communicate with devices connected to the network(Internet/PSTN) 212 (e.g., the A/V device 210, the hub device 202, theclient devices 214, 216, and/or a device controlled by the securitymonitoring service 228).

The memory 402 may include a server application 508 that configures theprocessor(s) 502 to receive and/or retrieve the audio data 408, the textdata 414, the input data 410, the messages 416, the image data 406,and/or the motion data 412 from the A/V device 210 (e.g., in the outputsignal 418) and/or the hub device 202. The server application 508 mayalso configure the processor(s) 502 to transmit (and/or forward) theaudio data 408, the text data 414, the input data 410, the messages 416,the image data 406, and/or the motion data 412 to the client devices214, 216 using the communication module 504. Furthermore, the serverapplication 508 may configure the processor(s) 502 to receive, using thecommunication module 504, image data 512 (also referred to as “secondimage data 512”) generated by the A/V devices 230.

Although referred to as the server 224 with reference to the processesdescribed herein, the server 224 may additionally, or alternatively,include one or more of the devices from the network(s) ofservers/backend devices 220. For example, the processes described hereinwith respect to the server 224 may additionally, or alternatively, atleast in part, be performed by one or more APIs 226.

In further reference to FIG. 5, the memory 506 may also include sourceidentifying data 510 that may be used to identify the A/V device 210,the hub device 202, and/or the client devices 214, 216. In addition, thesource identifying data 510 may be used by the processor(s) 502 of theserver 224 to determine the client devices 214, 216 are associated withthe A/V device 210 and/or the hub device 202.

In some embodiments, the server application 508 may further configurethe processor(s) 502 to generate and transmit a report signal (notshown) to a third-party client device (e.g., electronic device(s) 234),which may be associated with a law enforcement agency or the securitymonitoring service 228, for example. The report signal, which may be themessage 416, in some examples, may include the image data 406, the audiodata 408, the text data 414, and/or the second image data 512.

As described herein, at least some of the processes of the A/V device210, the hub device 202, and/or the client device 214, 216 may beexecuted by the server 224. For instance, the server 224 may receive andstore identifying information for the wireless device 118 known to beassociated with criminal activity. The A/V device 210 may relay thesignals from the wireless device 118 to the server 224 without firstdecoding them. The server 224 may decode the encoded signals from thewireless device 118 and determine whether the signal received by the A/Vdevice 210 is from the wireless device 118 known to be associated withcriminal activity. Although this function may be performed by the A/Vdevice 210, for example, the server 224 having the ability to performthis function may provide advantages for the disclosed systems andmethods including, without limitation, freeing bandwidth and processingresources of the A/V device 210 to focus on recording and transmittingvideo data at the highest possible quality and at the highest possibletransmission speed in cases where the wireless device 118 known to beassociated with criminal activity is in the proximity of the A/V device210. In the disclosed systems and methods, whether or not variousfunctions may be performed, where available, by the server 224 insteadof or in addition to the A/V device 210 may be dictated by the user ofthe A/V device 210.

For example, the server application 508 may configure the processor(s)502 to analyze the image data 406 in order to determine if the imagedata 406 depicts an object (e.g., object 106). Objects may include, butare not limited to, people, animals, vehicles, parcels (e.g., packages),electronic devices (e.g., remote control vehicles, drones, etc.), and/orany other type of object that can be depicted by the image data 406and/or cause motion that can be detected by the A/V device 210. In someexamples, the processor(s) 502 of the server 224 may analyze the imagedata 406 whenever the server 224 receives the image data 406 from theA/V device 210.

In some examples, to analyze the image data 406, computer visionprocessing and/or image processing, as described herein, for example,may be performed by the processor(s) 502 of the server 224 to determinethat the image data 406 depicts one or more objects. For example, in anyof the present embodiments, the image data 406 generated by the A/Vdevice 210 may be analyzed to determine object data 512. In some of thepresent embodiments, one or more of the image data 406, the motion data412, and the audio data 408 may be used to determine the object data512. The computer vision and/or image processing may be executed usingcomputer vision and/or image processing algorithms. Examples of computervision and/or image processing algorithms may include, withoutlimitation, spatial gesture models that are 3D model-based and/orappearance based. 3D model-based algorithms may include skeletal andvolumetric, where volumetric may include NURBS, primitives, and/orsuper-quadrics, for example.

In some embodiments, the processor(s) 502 of the server 224 may comparethe object data 512 to an object database 514 to determine what, if any,object(s) the image data 406 depicts in the field of view of the A/Vdevice 210. For example, the object database 514 may store image datacorresponding to images and/or video footage that depict variousobjects, where the image data may be labeled (e.g., tagged, such as inthe form of metadata) to indicate an object type 516 (alternativelyreferred to herein as the “type of object 516”) depicted by each imageand/or video footage. For a first example, the object database 514 maystore image data depicting a person, where the image data is labeled toindicate that the type of object 516 includes a person (e.g., person114). For a second example, the object database 514 may store image datadepicting an animal (e.g., a dog, a cat, a coyote, etc.), where theimage data is labeled to indicate that the type of object 516 includesthe animal (e.g., the dog, the cat, the coyote, etc.). For a thirdexample, the object database 514 may store image data depicting avehicle, where the image data is labeled to indicate the type of object516 includes the vehicle (e.g., vehicle 116).

Based on the comparison, the processor(s) 502 of the server 224 maymatch the object data 512 from the image data 406 to the image datastored in the object database 514. The processor(s) 502 of the server224 may then use the match to determine that the object data 512represents an object and/or to determine the type of object 516 that theobject data 512 represents. For example, if the processor(s) 502 of theserver 224 matches the object data 512 from the image data 406 to imagedata stored in the object database 514 that represents a person, thenthe processor(s) 502 of the server 224 may determine that the image data406 depicts an object and/or that the image data 406 depicts a person.In some examples, when the object data 512 represents multiple objects,the processor(s) 502 of the server 224 may perform a similar analysis toidentify each object represented by the object data 512 and/or therespective type of object 516 associated with each of the objectsrepresented by the object data 512.

In some examples, in addition to, or alternatively separate from,comparing the image data 406 to the image data stored in the objectdatabase 514, features and/or characteristics of various objects may bestored in the object database 514, and the features and/orcharacteristics of the objects in the image data 406 may be determined(e.g., using computer vision processing, image processing, or the like)and compared against the features and/or characteristics from the objectdatabase 514. For example, sizes, volumes, weights, colors, movementtypes, and/or other features and/or characteristics of various objectsmay be stored in the object database 514. The size, volume, weight,color, movement type, and/or other features and/or characteristics of anobject depicted by the image data 406 may then be compared to the sizes,volumes, weights, colors, movement types, and/or other features and/orcharacteristics stored in the object database 514 to identify the typeof object 516 depicted by the image data 406.

Although described as being performed in the server 224, in someembodiments, the image data 406 may be analyzed by any of the A/Vrecording and communication device 210, the hub device 202, and/or theclient device 214, 216 in order to determine if the image data 406depicts an object, therein. Thus, any or all of the operations describedherein to analyze the image data 406 may be performed by any of thesedevices. To perform these operations, any or all of these devices mayalso include the object database 514, including the object type 516,and/or the object data 512, as described with reference to FIG. 5.

The hub device 202 and/or the server 224 (and/or one or more additionalor alternative components of the network(s) of servers/backend devices220) may alternatively be referred to herein as “network devices.”

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating one embodiment of theclient device 214, 216, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. The client device 214, 216 may comprise processor(s) 602(which may be similar to, and/or include similar functionality as, theprocessor(s) 310) that are operatively connected to an input interface604, microphone(s) 606, speaker(s) 608, a communication module 610(which may be similar to, and/or include similar functionality as, thecommunication module 312), and memory 612 (which may be similar to,and/or include similar functionality as, the memory 402). The clientdevice 214, 216 may further comprise a camera (not shown) operativelyconnected to the processor(s) 602.

The memory 614 may store a device application 616. In variousembodiments, the device application 616 may configure the processor(s)602 to receive input(s) to the input interface 604 (e.g., a command bythe user of the A/V device 210 to arm the security system 120 associatedwith the A/V device 210). In addition, the device application 614 mayconfigure the processor(s) 602 to receive, using the communicationmodule 610, the input data 410, the image data 406, the audio data 408,the output signal 418, and/or messages 416 from one or more of the A/Vdevice 210, the hub device 202, or the server 224.

With further reference to FIG. 6, the input interface 604 may include adisplay 618. The display 618 may include a touchscreen, such that theuser of the client device 214, 216 may provide inputs directly to thedisplay 618 (e.g., a text message by a user of the A/V device 210 to hisor her neighbor indicating that a person of interest 114 was detected inthe proximity of the user's A/V device 210). In some embodiments, theclient device 214, 216 may not include a touchscreen. In suchembodiments, and in embodiments where the client device 214, 216includes the touchscreen, the user may provide an input using any inputdevice, such as, without limitation, a mouse, a trackball, a touchpad, ajoystick, a pointing stick, a stylus, etc.

In some of the present embodiments, in response to receiving a message416, the device application 616 may configure the processor(s) 602 tocause the display 618 to display the message 416. The message 416 mayindicate that the A/V device 210 detected motion, detected the presenceof an object, received an input (e.g., to the button 306), etc. Whiledisplaying the message 416, the input interface 604 may receive inputfrom the user to answer the message 416. In response, the deviceapplication 616 may configure the processor(s) 602 to display thereceived image data 406 on the display 618 (e.g., display image(s)and/or video footage represented by the image data 406).

As described herein, at least some of the processes of the A/V device210, the hub device 202, and/or the server 224 may be executed by theclient device 214, 216.

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram illustrating an embodiment of thesmart-home hub device 202 according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. The hub device 202 may be, for example, one or more of aWi-Fi hub, a smart-home hub, a hub of a home security/alarm system, agateway device, a hub for a legacy security/alarm system (e.g., a hubfor connecting a pre-existing security/alarm system to the network(Internet/PSTN) 212 for enabling remote control of the hub device 202),and/or another similar device. In some examples, the hub device 202 mayinclude the functionality of the VA device 208. The hub device 202 maycomprise processor(s) 702 (which may be similar to, and/or includesimilar functionality as, the processor(s) 310) that are operativelyconnected to speaker(s) 704, microphone(s) 706, a communication module708 (which may be similar to, and/or include similar functionality as,the communication module 310), and memory 710 (which may be similar to,and/or include similar functionality as, the memory 402). In someembodiments, the hub device 202 may further comprise one or more cameras(not shown). In some embodiments, the hub device 202 may not include oneor more of the components shown in FIG. 7, such as the speaker(s) 704and/or the microphone(s) 706.

As shown in the example of FIG. 7, the memory 710 stores a smart-homehub application 712. In various embodiments, the smart-home hubapplication 712 may configure the processor(s) 702 to receive sensordata from the sensors 204 and/or the automation devices 206. Forexample, the sensor data may include a current state (e.g.,opened/closed for door and window sensors, motion detected for motionsensors, living room lights on/off for a lighting automation system,etc.) of each of the sensors 204 and/or the automation devices 206. Insome of the present embodiments, the sensor data may be received inresponse to sensor triggers. The sensor triggers may be a dooropening/closing, a window opening/closing, lights being turned on/off,blinds being opened/closed, etc. As such, the sensor data may includethe current state of the sensors 204 and/or the automation devices 206as well as any updates to the current state based on sensor triggers.

With further reference to FIG. 7, the smart-home hub application 712 mayconfigure the processor(s) 702 to receive the audio data 408, the textdata 414, the image data 406, the motion data 412, the input data 410,and/or the messages 416 from the A/V device 210 (in some embodiments,via the server 224) using the communication module 708. For example, thehub device 202 may receive and/or retrieve (e.g., after receiving asignal from the A/V device 210 that the A/V device 210 has beenactivated) the image data 406, the input data 410, and/or the motiondata 412 from the A/V device 210 and/or the server 224 in response tomotion being detected by the A/V device 210. The smart-hub application712 may then configure the processor(s) 702 to transmit, using thecommunication module 708, the audio data 408, the text data 414, theimage data 406, the motion data 412, the input data 410, and/or themessages 416 to the client device 214, 216, the server 224, and/or anadditional electronic device (e.g., a second A/V device 210, theautomation device(s) 206, the sensor(s) 204, etc.).

As described herein, at least some of the processes of the A/V device210, the server 224, and/or the client device 214, 216 may be executedby the hub device 202. For instance, the hub device 202 may receive andstore identifying information for the wireless device 118 known to beassociated with criminal activity. The A/V device 210 may relay thesignals from the wireless device 118 to the hub device 202 without firstdecoding them. The hub device 202 may decode the encoded signals fromthe wireless device 118 and determine whether the signal received by theA/V device 210 is from the wireless device 118 known to be associatedwith criminal activity. Although this function may be performed by theA/V device 210, for example, the hub device 202 having the ability toperform this function may provide advantages for the disclosed systemsand methods including, without limitation, freeing bandwidth andprocessing resources of the A/V device 210 to focus on recording andtransmitting video data at the highest possible quality and at thehighest possible transmission speed in cases where the wireless device118 known to be associated with criminal activity is in the proximity ofthe A/V device 210. In the disclosed systems and methods, whether or notvarious functions may be performed, where available, by the hub device202 instead of or in addition to the A/V device 210 may be dictated bythe user of the A/V device 210.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a geographic network of users,according to various aspects of the present disclosure. In someexamples, a geographic network may be executed by a geographic networkplatform, such as a geographic network platform operating on the server224 and/or one or more other or additional components of the network ofservers/backend devices 220. As such, the server 224 and/or one or moreother or additional components of the network of servers/backend devices220 may store and/or maintain the components, features, and/orfunctionality of the geographic network platform. In some examples, andwithout limitation, the geographic network may be aneighborhood-oriented or local-oriented network, such as Neighborhoods®or Nextdoor®. In other examples, and without limitation, the geographicnetwork may be a social media network (or a feature within a socialmedia network), such as Facebook®, Twitter®, or Instagram®.

The geographic network platform may enable users of the geographicnetwork to share content (e.g., image data 406, audio data 408, textdata 414, input data 410, motion data 412, and/or other data from theuser's A/V device 210 and/or the user's client device 214, 216) withother users of the geographic network. The geographic network platformmay allow users that are located within geographic area(s) to registerwith the geographic network to access content shared by other userswithin the geographic area(s). As such, the content that a particularuser may have access to may be based on the user's location (e.g., thelocation of the user's residence, the location of one or more A/Vdevices associated with the user, the current location of the user(e.g., based on a location of the user's client device), etc.) and/orthe location of the electronic device(s) (e.g., the A/V device 210, theclient device(s) 214, 216, etc.) that generated the content. Forexample, users that are located in a geographic area may share contentwith other users in the geographic area and/or in a similar geographicarea, and/or users may view content shared by other users that arelocated within his or her geographic area (e.g., a neighborhood, a town,a city, a state, a user-defined area, etc.) and/or in a similargeographic area.

In some examples, a user may register with the geographic networkplatform if the user has an A/V device and/or has an application (e.g.,a mobile application, a web application, etc.) associated with thegeographic network installed on and/or running on his or her clientdevice. When registering for the geographic network, the user mayregister, or be required to register, with respect to a geographic area.In some examples, a user may register with the geographic area of thegeographic network if the user's residence is located within thegeographic area and/or the user has A/V device(s) located (e.g.,installed) within the geographic area. In some examples, a user may be amember to one or more geographic areas of the geographic network.

In some examples, a user may be verified to a geographic area of thegeographic network that the user is requesting to join. For example, todetermine if the user is actually located within a geographic area, GNSSdata of the user's A/V device may be used (e.g., during and/or afterinstallation, provisioning, and/or setup of the A/V device). As anotherexample, to determine if the user is actually located within ageographic area, GNSS data of the user's client device may be compared(e.g., over a period time) to an address input by the user. For example,if the user inputs an address, and the location of the user's clientdevice is within a threshold proximity to the address (e.g., over theperiod of time, which may be, for example and without limitation, fourhours, six hours, twenty-four hours, two days, etc.), the user may beverified to the address, and thus verified to the geographic area of thegeographic network. A verified user may have full access to features ofthe geographic network, and/or full access to content shared by otherusers of the geographic network in the geographic area for which theuser is verified. Non-verified users may have limited access to featuresand/or content of the geographic network. For example, non-verifiedusers may only be able to view content, but not interact with (e.g.,comment on, like, share, etc.) the content, and/or may not be able toshare his or her own content. A single user may be a verified user ofone geographic area of the geographic network and may be a non-verifieduser of a second geographic area of the geographic network.

In some examples, a provider of the geographic network platform (e.g.,hosted on the server 224) may receive shared content from any user thatis associated with the provider and/or the geographic network, but eachindividual user may only share content with and/or view content sharedfrom other users within a geographic area of the user. As a result,content provided to and/or made available to each user by the geographicnetwork platform may be unique to each user (e.g., based on the uniquelocation of the user's residence and/or the user's A/V devices, etc.),and/or unique to a geographic area (e.g., all users associated with ageographic area of the geographic network).

In one illustration of a geographic network, the geographic networkplatform may facilitate a content feed to allows a user of thegeographic network to post videos, photos, text, and/or other data toalert other members of possible activity of interest (e.g., criminalactivity) in a geographic area. Additionally, or alternatively, newsitems, police-sourced information, and/or other third-party data may beposted to the content feed of the geographic network (e.g., by the usersand/or by the provider of the geographic network (e.g., the host of thegeographic network platform)), that are related to crime and/or safetyof the geographic area (e.g., restricting news items to those related tothe geographic area). Members of the geographic network may rate, like,dislike, comment, download, share an existing post/alert with others,and/or upload a new post/alert to the content feed to provide additionalinformation for other users.

A geographic area of a geographic network may be defined using variousmethods. For example, a geographic area may be associated with one ormore neighborhoods, towns, zip codes, cities, states, or countries. Inanother example, a geographic area may be determined by the server 224based on grouping a particular number of A/V devices or client devicesabout a particular vicinity. In a further example, a user may customizea geographic area (e.g., by drawing the geographic area on a map, byproviding a radius from the user's property for which the user wouldlike to view shared content, by positioning a boundary (e.g., usingmarkers to define a polygon) of the geographic area over a map, etc.).In such an example, the user's geographic area may be unique to theuser.

For example, and as illustrated in FIG. 8, a portion of the geographicnetwork is shown. With reference to FIG. 8, and during a setup orregistration process with the geographic network, the location 808 to beassociated with the user of the client device 214 may be determined(e.g., based on an address being input by the user, based on adetermination of the location of the client device 214, based on thelocation of the A/V device(s) 210 associated with the user (in exampleswhere the user 214 has one or more A/V devices 210), etc.). In someexamples, the user may then be associated with the geographic area 804of the geographic network, such as based on the neighborhood, town,city, zip code, state, country, or other area in which the user islocated. In one example, the geographic area 804 may be the town inwhich the location 808 associated with the user is located. In otherexamples, the user may define, on the map 806, the geographic area 804of the geographic network that the user wishes to have access tocontent, which may include the location 808 associated with the user. Todefine the geographic area 804, the user may overlay a predefined shapeon the map 806 (e.g., a rectangle, as shown, a circle, a triangle, asquare, a polygon, etc.), may position any number of vertices to definea polygon on the map 806, may define a radius about the location 808associated with the user, may draw the geographic area 804 on the map,etc. The geographic network may limit the size of the geographic area804 for the user. The size may be limited to a maximum distance in anydirection from the location 808 (e.g., a radius) associated with theuser of less than, for example and without limitation, two miles, fivemiles, ten miles, fifteen miles, fifty miles, or the like.

Although the geographic area 804 includes the geographic network fromwhich the user may desire to view content, the content shared by theuser may be shared with a larger, smaller, and/or different geographicarea of the geographic network than the geographic area 804. Forexample, the geographic area 804 may include the geographic area inwhich the user can view content, but any users located within the entireportion of the map 806 displayed on the client device 214 may be able toview content shared by the user of the client device 214 (e.g.,depending on the geographic areas defined by and/or associated with theother users located within the portion of the map 806). For example,users of the geographic network having associated location(s) 810outside of the geographic area 804 may be able to view the contentshared by the user of the client device 214, but the user of the clientdevice 214 may not be able to view, or may choose not to view (e.g., bydefining the geographic area 804 that does not include the locations810), the content shared by the user(s) associated with the location(s)810. In other examples, the geographic area 804 from which the user ofthe client device 214 desires to view content may also be the samegeographic area 804 in which users can view content shared by the userof the client device 214. For example, where the geographic area 804 isa town, each of the users located within the town may only be able toview and share content with each other user located in the town. Asanother example, where the geographic area 804 is defined by the user ofthe client device 214, the user of the client device 214 may only beable to view content by the users who are located within the geographicarea 804 and the users within the geographic area 804 may be the onlyusers that can view content shared by the user of the client device 214.

With further reference to FIG. 8, and during use of the geographicnetwork platform by the user of the client device 214, the user mayaccess a GUI on the client device 214 (e.g., within a mobile or webapplication). The user may desire to view shared content from users ofthe geographic area 804 of the geographic network. As such, the iconsillustrating the locations 802 may be included within the geographicarea 804 because data generated by client devices and/or A/V devices ofusers associated with the locations 802 may be available for viewing. Insome examples, the icons may be included because the content has not yetbeen viewed by the user, because the content was shared within a timeperiod (e.g., within the last day, within the last two days, within thelast week, etc.), and/or based on other criteria. The user may selectthe icons, and in response, the user may receive the content (e.g., theimage data, audio data, the text data, etc.) associated with the icons(e.g., from the server 224). Although illustrated as icons on a map, insome examples, the content may additionally, or alternatively, beprovided as a list. For example, the list may include text describingthe content (e.g., date, time, description, location (e.g., as aselectable icon, that when selected may allow the user to view thelocation on a map), etc.), and individual listings may be selectable,similar to the icons on the map 806.

Each of the processes described herein, including the processes 900,1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, 1600, and 1700, are illustrated as acollection of blocks in a logical flow graph, which represent a sequenceof operations that may be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination thereof. In the context of software, the blocks representcomputer-executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readablestorage media that, when executed by one or more processors, perform therecited operations. Generally, computer-executable instructions includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and the likethat perform particular functions or implement particular abstract datatypes. The order in which the operations are described is not intendedto be construed as a limitation, and any number of the described blocksmay be combined in any order and/or in parallel to implement theprocesses. Additionally, any number of the described blocks may beoptional and eliminated to implement the processes.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 900 foridentifying a wireless device in data collected from an A/V recordingand communication device, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. The process 900, at block B902, records video data of anobject 106 in the FOV of the camera 314. For example, an A/V recordingand communication device (e.g., the A/V device 210) may record, usingthe camera 314, video data of a person 114 within the FOV of the A/Vdevice 210 (e.g., an FOV of the camera 314 and/or an FOV of the motionsensor(s) 326). In some examples, the person 114 or other object 106 mayhave a wireless device 118 associated with it, and the wireless device118 may be proximate the person 114 or other object 106. For example,the person 114 may be carrying the wireless device 118 during such timewhen he or she is in the FOV of the camera 314 and/or the FOV of themotion sensor(s) 326.

The process 900, at block B904, receives at least one signal from thewireless device 118. For example, the A/V device 210 may receive, usingthe communication module 312, at least one signal from the wirelessdevice 118 being carried by a person 114 within the FOV of the A/Vdevice 210). In some examples, the signal(s) from the wireless device118 include(s) identifying information for the wireless device 118. Invarious embodiments, the A/V device 210 may receive more than one signalfrom the wireless device 118. For simplicity, however, variousembodiments described herein may use the singular form “signal.” It isto be understood that use of the singular form does not imply exclusionof instances in which the A/V device 210 receives more than one signalfrom the wireless device 118.

In some embodiments, the process 900, at block B906, detects, by themotion sensor(s) 326, motion of the object 106. In some examples, theprocess 900, at block B908, wakes the communication module 312 of theA/V device 210 from a passive state to begin receiving the signal fromthe wireless device 118.

The process 900, at block B910, transmits the video data and theidentifying information for the wireless device to a network-connecteddevice 110. For example, the A/V device 210 may transmit, using thecommunication module 312, the video data and the identifying informationto the network-connected device 110. In some embodiments, thenetwork-connected device 110 is the hub device 202, and the process 900,at block B910, transmits the video data and the identifying informationto the hub device 202. The hub device 202 may, in turn, transmit thevideo data and the identifying information to the server 224. In otherembodiments, the network-connected device 110 is the server 224, and theprocess 900, at block B910, transmits the video data and the identifyinginformation to the server 224. In some embodiments, thenetwork-connected device(s) 110 is/are the client device(s) 214, 216,and the process 900, at block B910, transmits the video data and theidentifying information to the client device(s) 214, 216.

In some examples, block B910 of the process 900 may include transmittingthe video data to the network-connected device 110, and thentransmitting the identifying information for the wireless device 118 tothe network-connected device 110 after transmitting the video data tothe network-connected device 110. In other examples, block B910 of theprocess 900 may include transmitting the identifying information for thewireless device 118 to the network-connected device 110, and thentransmitting the video data to the network-connected device 110 aftertransmitting the identifying information to the network-connected device110. In some examples, block B910 of the process 900 may includetransmitting the identifying information for the wireless device 118 tothe network-connected device 110 substantially simultaneously withtransmitting the video data to the network-connected device 110.

In other examples, the process 900 may include storing the signal(s)from the wireless device 118 in a memory (e.g., the volatile memory 322and/or the non-volatile memory 324) of the A/V device 210. In someexamples, the signal(s) from the wireless device 118 is/are encoded, andthe process 900 may include decoding the signal(s). In theseembodiments, after decoding the signal from the wireless device 118, theprocess 900 may include storing the decoded signal in the volatilememory 322 and/or the non-volatile memory 324 of the A/V device 210. Inother examples, the signal from the wireless device 118 includes atleast one of: a Bluetooth signal, a Bluetooth-low energy signal, a WiFisignal, and a Zigbee signal. In other examples, the signal includes amedia access control (MAC) address of the wireless device 118. In theseembodiments, the MAC address of the signal may be included either inaddition to or instead of the at least one of: the Bluetooth signal, theBluetooth-low energy signal, the WiFi signal, and the Zigbee signal. Insome examples, the signal includes a service set identifier (SSID). Inother examples, the signal includes manufacturer-specific informationfor the wireless device 118. For example, the manufacturer-specificinformation included in the signal from the wireless device 118 mayfacilitate identifying the brand and/or model of the wireless device118.

In other examples, the process 900 may include storing the video data inthe volatile memory 322 and/or the non-volatile memory 324 of the A/Vdevice 210. In some examples, the process 900 may include determining,by the processor 310, a direction of movement of the object 106 based,at least in part, on the video data. In other examples, the process 900may include determining, by the processor 310, a speed of movement ofthe object 106 based, at least in part, on the video data.

In some examples, in the process 900, the object 106 is or includes aperson 114. In other examples, where the object 106 is a person 114, theperson 114 may be a criminal suspect or a crime victim. In someexamples, the object 106 includes a pet. In other examples, the object106 includes a vehicle 116. In other examples, where the object 106includes a vehicle 116, the vehicle 116 may include the criminal suspectand/or the crime victim as a driver and/or passenger of the vehicle 116.

In other examples, the process 900 may include determining a signalstrength of the wireless device 118 received by the communication module312 of the A/V device 210. In the process 900, determining the signalstrength of the wireless device 118 may include acquiring signalstrength data using a signal strength sensor 344 of the A/V device 210.For example, the wireless device 118 signal strength may be determinedby at least one of the communication module 312 and/or the processor(s)310 of the A/V device 210 based, at least in part, on the acquiredsignal strength data. In these embodiments, the process 900 may includeignoring the signal from the wireless device 118 in response to thedetermined signal strength being less than a predetermined signalstrength. Ignoring the signal from the wireless device 118 may includethe communication module 312 and/or the processor(s) 310 taking noadditional action and performing no further steps in the process 900, atleast with respect to the signal received, at block B904, from thewireless device 118.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example aspect of the process 900shown in FIG. 9, according to various aspects of the present disclosure.One or more of the blocks shown in FIG. 10 may be performed by the A/Vdevice 210 upon the occurrence of an event such as a criminal suspect orthe suspect's wireless device 118 being identified in the geographicarea of the A/V device 210 (e.g., by one or more neighboring A/Vdevice(s) 210). For example, the process 1000, at block B1002, receivesa camera activation instruction sent from the network-connected device110. In some examples, the camera activation instruction is sent fromthe network-connected device 110 to the communication module 312 of theA/V device 210, and thus received by the A/V device 210, in response toa notification of an occurrence of an event. For example, thenetwork-connected device 110 may receive the notification of an eventinvolving the object 106 and/or the wireless device 118 associated withthe object 106. In some examples, where the object 106 is a criminalsuspect, the event may include a commission of a crime and thenotification of the event may include a report of the crime and/or thereport thereof having occurred.

In some examples, the camera activation instruction may includepre-identified wireless device identifier data associated with theoccurrence of the event. For example, a criminal suspect may be known tobe carrying a wireless device 118 having one or more known wirelesssignal characteristics. Where such wireless signal characteristics mayfunction as pre-identified wireless device identifier data, providing itto the A/V device 210 and/or the network-connected device 110 mayfacilitate identifying and locating the wireless device 118 and theobject 106 of interest associated therewith using the disclosed systemsand methods.

The process 1000, at block B1004, transmits the video data and theidentifying information for the wireless device to the network-connecteddevice 110 in response to receiving the camera activation instruction.Referring again to FIG. 9, block B1004 may be performed in the process1000 after blocks B902 and B904 are performed in the process 900. Forexample, the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210 transmitsthe video data and the identifying information to the network-connecteddevice 110 in response to receiving, by the communication module 312,the camera activation instruction from the network-connected device 110.

The process 1000, at block B1006, wakes the camera 314 of the A/V device210 in response to receiving the camera activation instruction.Referring again to FIG. 9, block B1006 may be performed in the process1000 prior to block B902 being performed in the process 900. Forexample, in response to receiving, by the communication module 312, thecamera activation instruction from the network-connected device 110, theprocessor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may wake the camera 314 from apassive state to begin recording the video data. The process 1000, atblock B1008, wakes the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210 inresponse to receiving the camera activation instruction. Referring againto FIG. 9, block B1008 may be performed in the process 1000 prior toblock B904 being performed in the process 900. For example, in responseto receiving, by the communication module 312, the camera activationinstruction from the network-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310of the A/V device 210 may wake the communication module 312 from apassive state to begin receiving the signal from the wireless device118.

In some examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the camera 314 to record the video data at a higher resolutionin the presence of one or more predetermined conditions, as compared toa lower resolution recorded in the absence of the one or morepredetermined conditions. In the process 900, for example, in responseto receiving, by the communication module 312, the camera activationinstruction from the network-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310of the A/V device 210 cause the camera 314 to record the video data atthe higher resolution, as compared to a lower resolution recorded in theabsence of receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110. In this example for the process 900, theone or more predetermined conditions may include the communicationmodule 312 receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110.

Receipt of wireless device identifier data may also serve as a conditionfor recording video data at higher resolution. Thus, in response toreceiving, by the communication module 312, the pre-identified wirelessdevice identifier data from the wireless device 118, the processor(s)310 of the A/V device 210 may cause the camera 314 to record the videodata at the higher resolution, as compared to the lower resolutionrecorded in the absence of receiving the pre-identified wireless deviceidentifier data from the wireless device 118.

In other examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the communication module 312 to transmit the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 to the network-connected device110 using a first sequence in the presence of the one or morepredetermined conditions, as compared to using a second sequence in theabsence of the one or more predetermined conditions. In the process 900,for example, in response to receiving, by the communication module 312,the camera activation instruction from the network-connected device 110,the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may cause the communicationmodule 312 to transmit the identifying information for the wirelessdevice 118 to the network-connected device 110 (e.g., after transmittingthe video data). Referring again to FIG. 9, in this example for theprocess 900, blocks B902 and B904 are performed after B1002 is performedin the process 1000. Also, in this example for the process 900, in theabsence of receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210may cause the communication module 312 to transmit the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 to the network-connected device110 before or concurrently with transmitting the video data. Also, inthis example for the process 900, the one or more predeterminedconditions may include the communication module 312 receiving the cameraactivation instruction from the network-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by thecommunication module 312, the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/Vdevice 210 may cause the communication module 312 to transmit theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 to thenetwork-connected device 110 after transmitting the video data. In thisexample for the process 1000, in the absence of receiving thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may cause thecommunication module 312 to transmit the identifying information for thewireless device to the network-connected device 110 before orconcurrently with transmitting the video data. Also, in this example forthe process 1000, the one or more predetermined conditions may includethe communication module 312 receiving the pre-identified wirelessdevice identifier data from the wireless device 118.

In some examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the communication module 312 to transmit the video data to thenetwork-connected device 110 using a greater bandwidth in the presenceof the one or more predetermined conditions, as compared to using alesser bandwidth in the absence of the one or more predeterminedconditions. In the process 900, for example, in response to receiving,by the communication module 312, the camera activation instruction fromthe network-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device210 may cause the communication module 312 to transmit the video data tothe network-connected device 110 using the greater bandwidth. In thisexample for the process 900, in the absence of receiving the cameraactivation instruction from the network-connected device 110, theprocessor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may cause the communicationmodule 312 to transmit the video data to the network-connected device110 using the lesser bandwidth. Also, in this example for the process900, the one or more predetermined conditions may include thecommunication module 312 receiving the camera activation instructionfrom the network-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by thecommunication module 312, the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/Vdevice 210 may cause the communication module 312 to transmit the videodata to the network-connected device 110 using the greater bandwidth. Inthis example for the process 1000, in the absence of receiving thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may cause thecommunication module 312 to transmit the video data to thenetwork-connected device 110 using the lesser bandwidth. Also, in thisexample for the process 1000, the one or more predetermined conditionsmay include the communication module 312 receiving the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118.

In other examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing a security system 120 associated with the A/V device 210 to armin the presence of the one or more predetermined conditions, as comparedto maintaining security system 120 in a disarmed and/or other functionalstate different from an armed state in the absence of the one or morepredetermined conditions. In the process 900, for example, in responseto receiving, by the communication module 312, the camera activationinstruction from the network-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310of the A/V device 210 may cause the security system 120 associated withthe A/V device 210 to arm. For example, referring to FIG. 2, the A/Vdevice 210 may transmit an instruction to a smart home hub device 202,which is implemented as a security system hub, to arm the securitysystem. Additionally, or alternatively, a server or other device maytransmit an instruction to the smart home hub 202 to arm the securitysystem in conjunction with sending the camera activation instruction tothe A/V device 210. In this example for the process 900, in the absenceof receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210may cause the security system 120 associated with the A/V device 210 tobe maintained in a disarmed and/or other functional state different froman armed state. Also, in this example for the process 900, the one ormore predetermined conditions may include the communication module 312receiving the camera activation instruction from the network-connecteddevice 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by thecommunication module 312, the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/Vdevice 210 may cause the security system 120 associated with the A/Vdevice 210 to arm. In this example for the process 1000, in the absenceof receiving the pre-identified wireless device identifier data from thewireless device 118, processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may causethe security system 120 associated with the A/V device 210 to bemaintained in a disarmed and/or other functional state different from anarmed state. Also, in this example for the process 1000, the one or morepredetermined conditions may include the communication module 312receiving the pre-identified wireless device identifier data from thewireless device 118.

In some examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the communication module 312 to transmit an alert to the clientdevice(s) 214, 216 associated with the A/V device 210 in the presence ofthe one or more predetermined conditions, as compared to the alert notbeing transmitted to the client device(s) 214, 216 in the absence of theone or more predetermined conditions. In the process 900, for example,in response to receiving, by the communication module 312, the cameraactivation instruction from the network-connected device 110, theprocessor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may cause the communicationmodule 312 to transmit, to the client device(s) 214, 216, the alertindicating the receipt of the camera activation instruction. In thisexample for the process 900, in the absence of receiving the cameraactivation instruction from the network-connected device 110, theprocessor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may not cause the communicationmodule 312 to transmit the alert to the client device(s) 214, 216. Also,in this example for the process 900, the one or more predeterminedconditions may include the communication module 312 receiving the cameraactivation instruction from the network-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by thecommunication module 312, the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/Vdevice 210 may cause the communication module 312 to transmit, to theclient device(s) 214, 216, the alert indicating the receipt of thepre-identified wireless device identifier data. In this example for theprocess 1000, in the absence of receiving the pre-identified wirelessdevice identifier data from the wireless device 118, the processor(s)310 of the A/V device 210 may not cause the communication module 312 totransmit the alert to the client device(s) 214, 216. Also, in thisexample for the process 1000, the one or more predetermined conditionsmay include the communication module 312 receiving the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118. In theseexamples for the process 900 and the process 1000, transmitting thealert to the client device(s) 214, 216 associated with the A/V device210 may provide a user and/or other people associated with andauthorized by the user to exercise additional caution and heightenedsecurity practices around such times when a criminal suspect or otherperson of interest is detected as being in close proximity to a user'shome having A/V device 210. Also, in these examples, the alert mayprovide the user and/or the other people associated with and authorizedby the user an ability to obtain information about the person ofinterest and to maintain a heightened awareness of their surroundings,including to identify the person(s) and to report on and/or warn othersof the whereabouts of the person(s) of interest.

In other examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the communication module 312 to transmit an alert to a system122 configured to monitor for emergency events in the presence of theone or more predetermined conditions, as compared to the alert not beingtransmitted to the system 122 configured to monitor for emergency eventsin the absence of the one or more predetermined conditions. In theprocess 900, for example, in response to receiving, by the communicationmodule 312, the camera activation instruction from the network-connecteddevice 110, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may cause thecommunication module 312 to transmit, to the system 122 configured tomonitor for emergency events, the alert indicating the receipt of thecamera activation instruction. In this example for the process 900, inthe absence of receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210may not cause the communication module 312 to transmit the alert to thesystem 122 configured to monitor for emergency events. Also, in thisexample for the process 900, the one or more predetermined conditionsmay include the communication module 312 receiving the camera activationinstruction from the network-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by thecommunication module 312, the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/Vdevice 210 may cause the communication module 312 to transmit, to thesystem 122 configured to monitor for emergency events, the alertindicating the receipt of the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata. In this example for the process 1000, in the absence of receivingthe pre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wirelessdevice 118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may not cause thecommunication module 312 to transmit the alert to the system 122configured to monitor for emergency events. Also, in this example forthe process 1000, the one or more predetermined conditions may includethe communication module 312 receiving the pre-identified wirelessdevice identifier data from the wireless device 118. In these examplesfor the process 900 and the process 1000, transmitting the alert to thesystem 122 configured to monitor for emergency events may provide apolice agency and/or other interested parties additional tools andfunctionality to facilitate locating and/or apprehending a person ofinterest, such as a criminal suspect. Also, in these examples, the alertmay provide the police agency and/or other interested parties an abilityto obtain information about the person of interest and to maintain aheightened awareness of their surroundings, including to identify theperson and to report on and/or warn others of the whereabouts of theperson(s) of interest.

In some examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may beimplemented for a plurality of A/V devices 210, including a first A/Vdevice 210 at a first location and having a first communication module312, and including a second A/V device 210 at a second location andhaving a second communication module 312. In these implementations, thefirst A/V device 210 has a first camera 314, and the second A/V device210 has a second camera 314. The second A/V device 210 may be locatedwithin a predetermined distance of the first A/V device 210. In someexamples, the predetermined distance between the first and second A/Vdevices 210 may correspond to a radius of a circle drawn on a map aroundthe first A/V device 210. In other embodiments, the predetermineddistance between the first and second A/V devices 210 may correspond toa distance between the first and second A/V devices 210 by streetsand/or sidewalks, as shown, for example, in the geographic network ofusers in FIG. 8. In these embodiments, the predetermined distance for aparticular A/V device 210 (e.g. the first A/V device 210) to two or moreother A/V devices 210 (e.g., second A/V devices 210) may vary based onthe respective locations of the two or more A/V devices 210 in thegeographic network of users (e.g., the neighborhood) shown in FIG. 8.The specification (e.g., by user(s) of the network-connected device(s)110 and/or the administrator system 130) of predetermined distance(s) inthe disclosed systems and methods provides for a realistically boundoperational area defined, for instance, by the amount of time it wouldtake the object 106 of interest (e.g., the person 114 and/or the vehicle116) to reach the second A/V device 210 after being detected at thelocation of the first A/V device 210. For example, if a criminal suspectperson 114 or his or her wireless device 118 is identified at thelocation of the first A/V device 210, sufficient time may be given touser(s) of the at least a second A/V device 210 before the arrival ofthe suspect at their locations.

The process 900 and/or the process 1000 may include causing the secondcommunication module 312 of at least the second A/V device 210 to wakefrom a passive state to begin receiving the signal including theidentifying information from the wireless device 118. For example, inthe process 900 and/or the process 1000, the second communication module312 of at least the second A/V device 210 may be awoken in the presenceof the one or more predetermined conditions being met for the first A/Vdevice 210, as compared to the at least the second A/V device 210 notbeing awoken in the absence of the one or more predetermined conditions.The one or more predetermined conditions may include the second A/Vdevice 210 being located within the predetermined distance of the firstA/V device 210. In some examples, location data (e.g., satnav (e.g.,GPS) coordinates within, for instance, the geographic network of usersshown in FIG. 8) for the first and the at least a second A/V devices 210are stored in the memory 506 of the server 224. In these embodiments,the processor 502 of the server 224 may determine that the at least asecond A/V device 210 is located within the predetermined distance fromthe location of the first A/V device 210. In other examples, thelocation data for the first and the at least a second A/V devices 210 isstored in the volatile memory 322 and/or the non-volatile memory 324 ofA/V devices 210. In these embodiments, the processor(s) 310 of the firstA/V device 210 may determine that the at least a second A/V device 210is located within the predetermined distance from the location of thefirst A/V device 210.

The one or more predetermined conditions may include the second A/Vdevice 210 being located within the predetermined distance of the firstA/V device 210. In the process 900, for example, in response toreceiving, by the first communication module 312 of the first A/V device210, the camera activation instruction from the network-connected device110, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause theprocessor(s) 310 of the second A/V device 210 to wake the secondcommunication module 312 of the at least the second A/V device 210 tobegin receiving the signal including the identifying information fromthe wireless device 118. In this example for the process 900, in theabsence of receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/Vdevice 210 may not cause the processor(s) 310 of the second A/V device210 to wake the second communication module 312 of the at least thesecond A/V device 210 to begin receiving the signal including theidentifying information from the wireless device 118. Also, in thisexample for the process 900, the one or more predetermined conditionsmay include the first communication module 312 of the first A/V device210 receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by the firstcommunication module 312 of the first A/V device 210, the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118, theprocessor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause the processor(s)310 of the second A/V device 210 to wake the second communication module312 of the at least the second A/V device 210 to begin receiving thesignal including the identifying information from the wireless device118. In this example for the process 1000, in the absence of receivingthe pre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wirelessdevice 118, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may notcause the processor(s) 310 of the second A/V device 210 to wake thesecond communication module 312 of the at least the second A/V device210 to begin receiving the signal including the identifying informationfrom the wireless device 118. Also, in this example for the process1000, the one or more predetermined conditions may include the firstcommunication module 312 of the first A/V device 210 receiving thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118.

In other examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the first and second communication modules 312 of the first andat least the second A/V devices 210 to transmit locations of theirrespective cameras 314 to the network-connected device 110 to facilitatelocating the object 106 of interest. For example, in the process 900and/or the process 1000, the first and second communication modules 312may transmit the locations of their respective cameras 314 to thenetwork-connected device 110 in the presence of the one or morepredetermined conditions being met for the first A/V device 210, ascompared to the first and second communication modules 312 nottransmitting the locations in the absence of the one or morepredetermined conditions. In the process 900, for example, in responseto receiving, by the first communication module 312 of the first A/Vdevice 210, the camera activation instruction from the network-connecteddevice 110, the first communication module 312 transmits the location ofthe first A/V device 210 to the network-connected device 110, and theprocessor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause the secondcommunication module 312 of the second A/V device 210 to transmit thecamera location of the second A/V device 210 to the network-connecteddevice 110. In this example for the process 900, in the absence ofreceiving the camera activation instruction from the network-connecteddevice 110, the first communication module 312 does not transmit thelocation of the first A/V device 210 to the network-connected device110, and the processor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may not causethe second communication module 312 of the second A/V device 210 totransmit the camera location of the second A/V device 210 to thenetwork-connected device 110. Also, in this example for the process 900,the one or more predetermined conditions may include the firstcommunication module 312 of the first A/V device 210 receiving thecamera activation instruction from the network-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by the firstcommunication module 312 of the first A/V device 210, the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118, the firstcommunication module 312 may transmit the location of the first A/Vdevice 210 to the network-connected device 110, and the processor(s) 310of the first A/V device 210 may cause the second communication module312 of the second A/V device 210 to transmit the camera location of thesecond A/V device 210 to the network-connected device 110. In thisexample for the process 1000, in the absence of receiving thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118, the first communication module 312 does not transmit the locationof the first A/V device 210 to the network-connected device 110, and theprocessor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may not cause the secondcommunication module 312 of the second A/V device 210 to transmit thecamera location of the second A/V device 210 to the network-connecteddevice 110. Also, in this example for the process 1000, the one or morepredetermined conditions may include the first communication module 312of the first A/V device 210 receiving the pre-identified wireless deviceidentifier data from the wireless device 118. These examples for theprocess 900 and the process 1000 are applicable in cases where thecurrent location of the first and/or the second A/V devices 210 is notalready known (e.g., stored in memory device(s) of) network-connecteddevice 110. In such cases, transmitting the locations of the first andsecond A/V devices 210 to the network-connected device 110 may providethe police agency and/or the other interested parties data for purposesof geographically locating the object 106 or person 114 of interest.

In some examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the second camera 314 of the second A/V device 210 to wake froma passive state to begin recording video data. For example, in theprocess 900 and/or the process 1000, the second camera 314 of at leastthe second A/V device 210 may be awoken in the presence of the one ormore predetermined conditions being met for the first A/V device 210, ascompared to the at least the second A/V device 210 not being awoken inthe absence of the one or more predetermined conditions. In the process900, for example, in response to receiving, by the first communicationmodule 312 of the first A/V device 210, the camera activationinstruction from the network-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310of the first A/V device 210 may cause the processor(s) 310 of the secondA/V device 210 to wake the second camera 314 of the at least the secondA/V device 210 to begin recording video data. In this example for theprocess 900, in the absence of receiving the camera activationinstruction from the network-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310of the first A/V device 210 may not cause the processor(s) 310 of thesecond A/V device 210 to wake the second camera 314 of the at least thesecond A/V device 210 to begin recording the video data. Also, in thisexample for the process 900, the one or more predetermined conditionsmay include the first communication module 312 of the first A/V device210 receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by the firstcommunication module 312 of the first A/V device 210, the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118, theprocessor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause the processor(s)310 of the second A/V device 210 to wake the second camera 314 of the atleast the second A/V device 210 to begin recording video data. In thisexample for the process 1000, in the absence of receiving thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may not cause theprocessor(s) 310 of the second A/V device 210 to wake the second camera314 of the at least the second A/V device 210 to begin recording thevideo data. Also, in this example for the process 1000, the one or morepredetermined conditions may include the first communication module 312of the first A/V device 210 receiving the pre-identified wireless deviceidentifier data from the wireless device 118.

In other examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the second camera 314 of the second A/V device 210 to recordvideo data at a higher resolution in the presence of the one or morepredetermined conditions, as compared to recording the video data at alower resolution in the absence of the one or more predeterminedconditions. For example, in the process 900 and/or the process 1000, theprocessor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause the second camera314 of at least the second A/V device 210 to record video data at thehigher resolution in the presence of the one or more predeterminedconditions being met for the first A/V device 210, as compared to thesecond camera 314 of at least the second A/V device 210 recording videodata at the lower resolution in the absence of the one or morepredetermined conditions. In the process 900, for example, in responseto receiving, by the first communication module 312 of the first A/Vdevice 210, the camera activation instruction from the network-connecteddevice 110, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may causethe second camera 314 of the second A/V device 210 to record video dataat the higher resolution. In this example for the process 900, in theabsence of receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/Vdevice 210 may not cause the second camera 314 of the second A/V device210 to record video data at the higher resolution. Also, in this examplefor the process 900, the one or more predetermined conditions mayinclude the first communication module 312 of the first A/V device 210receiving the camera activation instruction from the network-connecteddevice 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by the firstcommunication module 312 of the first A/V device 210, the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118, theprocessor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause the second camera314 of the second A/V device 210 to record video data at the higherresolution. In this example for the process 1000, in the absence ofreceiving the pre-identified wireless device identifier data from thewireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210may not cause the second camera 314 of the second A/V device 210 torecord video data at the higher resolution. Also, in this example forthe process 1000, the one or more predetermined conditions may includethe first communication module 312 of the first A/V device 210 receivingthe pre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wirelessdevice 118.

In some examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the second communication module 312 of the second A/V device 210to transmit the identifying information for the wireless device 118 tothe network-connected device 110 using a first sequence in the presenceof the one or more predetermined conditions, as compared to using asecond sequence in the absence of the one or more predeterminedconditions. For example, in the process 900 and/or the process 1000, theprocessor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause the secondcommunication module 312 of at least the second A/V device 210 totransmit, using the first sequence, the identifying information for thewireless device 118 to the network-connected device 110 in the presenceof the one or more predetermined conditions being met for the first A/Vdevice 210, as compared to the second communication module 312 of atleast the second A/V device 210 transmitting the identifying informationfor the wireless device 118 to the network-connected device 110 usingthe second sequence. In the process 900, for example, in response toreceiving, by the first communication module 312 of the first A/V device210, the camera activation instruction from the network-connected device110, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause thesecond communication module 312 of at least the second A/V device 210 totransmit the identifying information for the wireless device to thenetwork-connected device 110 after transmitting the video data (e.g.,using the first sequence). In this example for the process 900, in theabsence of receiving the camera activation instruction from thenetwork-connected device 110, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210may not cause the second communication module 312 to transmit theidentifying information for the wireless device to the network-connecteddevice 110 using the first sequence. In this case, in the absence ofreceiving, by the first communication module 312, the camera activationinstruction from the network-connected device 110, the secondcommunication module 312 may transmit the identifying information forthe wireless device to the network-connected device 110 before orconcurrently with transmitting the video data (e.g., using a secondsequence). Also, in this example for the process 900, the one or morepredetermined conditions may include the first communication module 312of the first A/V device 210 receiving the camera activation instructionfrom the network-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by the firstcommunication module 312 of the first A/V device 210, the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118, theprocessor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause the secondcommunication module 312 of at least the second A/V device 210 totransmit the identifying information for the wireless device 118 to thenetwork-connected device 110 after transmitting the video data (e.g.,using the first sequence). In this example for the process 1000, in theabsence of receiving the pre-identified wireless device identifier datafrom the wireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210may not cause the second communication module 312 to transmit theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 to thenetwork-connected device 110 using the first sequence. In this case, inthe absence of receiving, by the first communication module 312, thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118, the second communication module 312 may transmit the identifyinginformation for the wireless device to the network-connected device 110before or concurrently with transmitting the video data (e.g., using asecond sequence). Also, in this example for the process 1000, the one ormore predetermined conditions may include the first communication module312 of the first A/V device 210 receiving the pre-identified wirelessdevice identifier data from the wireless device 118.

In other examples, the process 900 and/or the process 1000 may includecausing the second communication module 312 of the second A/V device 210to transmit the video data to the network-connected device 110 using agreater bandwidth in the presence of the one or more predeterminedconditions, as compared to using a lesser bandwidth in the absence ofthe one or more predetermined conditions. In the process 900, forexample, in response to receiving, by the first communication module312, the camera activation instruction from the network-connected device110, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/V device 210 may cause thesecond communication module 312 to transmit the video data to thenetwork-connected device 110 using the greater bandwidth. In thisexample for the process 900, in the absence of receiving the cameraactivation instruction from the network-connected device 110, theprocessor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may not cause the communicationmodule 312 to transmit the video data to the network-connected device110 using the greater bandwidth. In this case, in the absence ofreceiving, by the first communication module 312, the camera activationinstruction from the network-connected device 110, the secondcommunication module 312 may transmit the video data to thenetwork-connected device 110 using the lesser bandwidth. Also, in thisexample for the process 900, the one or more predetermined conditionsmay include the first communication module 312 receiving the cameraactivation instruction from the network-connected device 110.

In the process 1000, for example, in response to receiving, by the firstcommunication module 312, the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the first A/Vdevice 210 may cause the second communication module 312 to transmit thevideo data to the network-connected device 110 using the greaterbandwidth. In this example for the process 1000, in the absence ofreceiving the pre-identified wireless device identifier data from thewireless device 118, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may notcause the communication module 312 to transmit the video data to thenetwork-connected device 110 using the greater bandwidth. In this case,in the absence of receiving, by the first communication module 312, thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118, the second communication module 312 may transmit the video data tothe network-connected device 110 using the lesser bandwidth. Also, inthis example for the process 1000, the one or more predeterminedconditions may include the first communication module 312 receiving thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118 from the network-connected device 110.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example aspect of the process 900shown in FIG. 9, according to various aspects of the present disclosure.One or more blocks shown in FIG. 11 may be performed by the A/V device210 in cases where user(s) associated with the A/V device 210 mayprovide permission for a third-party user and/or system to access andotherwise use data recorded and received by the A/V device 210. Forexample, the process 1100, at block B1102, receives permission data ofthe user of the A/V device 210. In some examples, the permission data isreceived by the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210. Thepermission data received at block B1102 includes one of: a presence of,and an absence of, permission to transmit the identifying informationfor the wireless device 118 to the network-connected device 110.

The process 1100, at block B1104, may store the permission data of theuser of the A/V device 210 in the volatile memory 322 and/or thenon-volatile memory 324 of the A/V device 210. The process 1100, atblock B1106, may receive a request to transmit the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 to the network-connected device110. For example, the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210receives the request to transmit the identifying information for thewireless device 118 to the network-connected device 110. In theseembodiments, and referring again to FIG. 9, block B910 may includetransmitting the identifying information for the wireless device 118 tothe network-connected device 110 in response to the permission data(e.g., received and stored in blocks B1102 and B1104, respectively)including the presence of permission to transmit the identifyinginformation to the network-connected device 110. For example, thecommunication module 312 of the A/V device 210 transmits the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 to the network-connected device110 in response to the permission data including the presence ofpermission to transmit the identifying information to thenetwork-connected device 110.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example aspect of the process 900shown in FIG. 9, according to various aspects of the present disclosure.One or more blocks shown in FIG. 12 may be performed by the A/V device210 in cases where the A/V device 210 and components associated with andcommunication with the A/V device 210 are configured to detect an accessrequest by wireless device 118 to a wireless network associated with theA/V device 210 (e.g., at the A/V device 210 user's home). For example,the process 1200, at block B1202, detects an access request of thewireless device 118 to a WiFi network associated with the A/V recordingand communication device (e.g., the A/V device 210). For example, wherethe antenna 332 of the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210includes a WiFi antenna communicatively coupled with a router of theuser's network 218, the communication module 312 and/or the processor(s)310 of the A/V device 210 may detect the access request of the wirelessdevice 118 to the WiFi network of the user's network 218. In theseembodiments, the identifying information for the wireless device 118 mayinclude the MAC address. Referring again to FIG. 9, detecting the accessrequest in block B1202 may include receiving and determining the MACaddress based on the signal received from the wireless device 118 inblock B904.

In various embodiments, the A/V device 210 may detect a presence of thewireless device 118 in a variety of ways. For example, as describedabove, the access request to a WiFi network may be used to detect apresence of the wireless device 118. In addition, the access request mayinclude identifying information as described herein (e.g., a MACaddress). In various embodiments, the presence of the wireless device118 may be detected based on passive and/or active signals sent from thewireless device 118. For purposes of this disclosure, an active signalmay comprise a signal directly or indirectly prompted by a user, while apassive signal may comprise a signal sent from the wireless device 118that is not prompted by the user. For example, an active signal from thewireless device 118 may include the access request to attempt to connectto the WiFi network. That access request may be considered an activesignal when directly prompted by the user when the user specificallyinteracts with the wireless device 118 to select and request to connectto the WiFi network. That access request may also be considered anactive signal when indirectly prompted by the user to request to connectto the WiFi network, such as when a user indicates that a WiFi networkto which the wireless device 118 has connected in the past should beautomatically connected to in the future. A passive signal, on the otherhand, may include signals sent by the wireless device 118 that aredetectable by the A/V device 210, but not directly or indirectlyprompted by a user of the wireless device 118. For example, varioustypes of wireless devices may send passive signals searching foravailable WiFi (or other types) of wireless networks, even withoutdirect or indirect prompts from a user. Those passive signals may bedetected by the A/V device 210, for example, to detect the presence ofthe wireless device 118. Those passive signals may also includeidentifying information as described herein. As such, identifyinginformation of a wireless device present near the A/V device 210 may bedetermined without direct or indirect prompts from a user of a wirelessdevice. Some wireless devices may even send out passive signals in spiteof prompts from a user. For example, some smartphone devices may sendout signals on WiFi network frequencies (e.g., scanning for WiFinetworks) even if WiFi functionality is turned off on the smartphone.Such passive signals may be used by the A/V device 210 to detect apresence of a wireless device and determine identifying information forthe wireless device.

As just one example of a passive signal that may be sent out by awireless device and detected by the A/V device 210, wireless devices maysend out probe requests to search for nearby access points to a wirelessnetwork (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.). Such probe requests may includeinformation unique to a wireless device, such as a MAC address.Accordingly, the probe requests may include identifying informationabout the device sending the probe request. In some embodiments, anaccess point (e.g., the A/V device 210, a WiFi router, etc.) may respondto a probe request with a probe response signal that includesinformation about the access point and/or the network. Becauseidentifying information may be included in passive probe requests fromwireless devices, the presence of specific wireless devices may bedetermined by the A/V device 210 as described herein, even if the userof the wireless device does not actively cause his or her wirelessdevice to communicate with the A/V device 210. Accordingly, the variousfunctionalities described herein that may be performed with identifyinginformation of a wireless device may also be performed with respect towireless devices that have sent out passive signals (e.g., proberequests) detected/received at the A/V device 210.

In various embodiments, other types of passive signals may be sent outfrom wireless devices that may be detected/received by the A/V device210, and identifying information about wireless devices may bedetermined from those passive signals. For example, signals related tolocation services on a wireless device (e.g., Global Positioning System(GPS) signals, or other satellite-based radionavigation system signals)may be passively sent from a wireless device and detected by the A/Vdevice 210. In another example, Bluetooth signals may be passively sentfrom a wireless device (e.g., signal scanning for a Bluetoothconnectable device). In another example, passive signals from a wirelessdevice may be sent out using any other type of wireless protocol ortechnology, such as near field communications (NFC) protocols (e.g., forpayment communication and processing technologies, traffic/toll controland payment devices, etc.); short message service (SMS) communications,multimedia messaging service (MMS), WiFi messaging, other WiFicommunications (e.g., voice over internet protocol (VoIP), video chatcommunications, etc.), or other messaging communications; cellularcommunications including call or text communications; or other radiofrequency (RF) channels, infrared communications channels, etc. Invarious embodiments, passive signals detected from a wireless device maybe prompted by another device, such as the A/V device 210. For example,with NFC communications, the A/V device 210 may broadcast a signal thatprompts NFC functionality of a wireless device to respond with a signalthat may include identifying information. In various embodiments, awireless device may passively emit an electro-magnetic field (EMF). TheEMF may be related or unrelated to operation of the wireless device. Forexample, any wireless device that holds an electrical charge (e.g., in abattery) may emit EMF, regardless of the state of the wireless device(e.g., on, off, active, idle, locked, etc.). EMFs emitted by wirelessdevices may also be unique, such that identifying information based onthe EMF may be determined by the A/V device 210. In some embodiments,EMFs emitted by wireless devices may also indicate information about thewireless device and/or its battery (e.g., device or battery type, deviceor battery size, device or battery voltage/current ratings, etc.). Thatinformation about the wireless device and/or its battery may also beused as identifying information, alone or in combination with otherinformation determined about the wireless device.

The various types of signals described herein that may be passively sentor sent as a result of indirect prompts from a user from a wirelessdevice such as the wireless device 118 may be sent when the wirelessdevice 118 is in various states. For example, the wireless device 118may send signals when the wireless device 118 is active (e.g., itsscreen is on); idle (e.g., its screen is off); locked (e.g., its lockscreen is shown); at a home screen; while an app is in use; while appsare running in the background; whether or not WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC,location services, or other functionalities or communications protocolsare activated; whether or not a wireless device is in airplane mode orother modes preset by an operating system (OS) developer; or otherstates of a wireless device.

In various embodiments, signals from a wireless device may includeidentifying information other than or in addition to a MAC address. Forexample, signals from a wireless device may include unique or non-uniqueinformation that may be used to identify a device. If the information isnot unique, that information may be used in combination with otherinformation to identify a device. For example, signals in a certainformat or with certain characteristics may be used to determineinformation about a device, such as a device type, a user of the device,a browser or version of browser being used, an operating system orversion of an operating system being used, an app being used or versionof app being used, etc. Other identifying information (or informationthat may be used in combination with other information as identifyinginformation) that may be part of a signal from a wireless device mayinclude configuration information for a communications channel, aninternet protocol (IP) address, etc.

The process 1200, at block B1204, may determine that the MAC address orother identifying information for the wireless device 118 is notassociated with the A/V device 210. As described herein, the identifyinginformation may be determined from active or passive signals from thewireless device 118. For example, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device210 may determine that the MAC address for the wireless device 118 isnot associated with a listing of known and/or allowed devices permittedto access the WiFi network of the user's network 218, such as theactivity of interest database 522 shown in FIG. 5. In that case, theprocessor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may facilitate denying the WiFiaccess request by the wireless device 118. Alternatively, where, atblock B1204, the process 1200 determines that the MAC address for thewireless device 118 is associated with the A/V device 210, theprocessor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may facilitate granting the WiFiaccess request by the wireless device 118.

The process 1200, at block B1206, transmits the MAC address to thenetwork-connected device 110 in response to determining, at block B1204,that the MAC address for the wireless device 118 is not associated withthe listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFi network. For example,the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210 may transmit the MACaddress to the network-connected device 110 in response to determining,at block B1204, that the MAC address for the wireless device 118 is notassociated with the listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFi network.Alternatively, where, at block B1204, the process 1200 determines thatthe MAC address for the wireless device 118 is associated with the A/Vdevice 210, block B1206 may not be performed in the process 1200.

The process 1200, at block B1208, wakes the communication module 312 ofthe A/V device 210 from a passive state to begin receiving the signalfrom the wireless device 118. For example, the processor(s) 310 of theA/V device 210 may wake the communication module 312 of the A/V device210 from the passive state in response to determining, at block B1204,that the MAC address for the wireless device 118 is not associated withthe listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFi network. Alternatively,where, at block B1204, the process 1200 determines that the MAC addressfor the wireless device 118 is associated with the A/V device 210, blockB1208 may not be performed in the process 1200.

The process 1200, at block B1210, wakes the camera 314 of the A/V device210 from the passive state to begin recording the video data. Forexample, the processor(s) 310 of the A/V device 210 may wake the camera314 of the A/V device 210 from the passive state in response todetermining, at block B 1204, that the MAC address for the wirelessdevice 118 is not associated with the listing of known MAC addresses forthe WiFi network. Alternatively, where, at block B1204, the process 1200determines that the MAC address for the wireless device 118 isassociated with the A/V device 210, block B 1210 may not be performed inprocess the 1200.

In various embodiments, when it is determined, at block B1204, that theMAC address (or any other kind or type of identifier includingidentifying information determined from passive or active signals fromthe wireless device 118) for the wireless device 118 is not associatedwith the A/V device 210, the process 1200 may include transmitting anotification to the client device(s) 214, 216. The notification maycomprise, for example, a push notification, and may indicate that anunrecognized and/or unauthorized wireless device was detected. Forexample, since an unrecognized wireless device may be associated with anintruder (e.g., a burglar), the notification to the client device(s)214, 216 may include warning language, such as “Intruder Wi-Fi packetdetected.” The notification may be sent prior to, or together with,image data (e.g., video) of the possible intruder. The foregoing aspectsmay be performed in addition to, or as an alternative to, blocks B1206,B 1208, and B 1210 of the process 1200. In various embodiments,notifications to the client device(s) 214, 216 may be suppressed whenthe MAC address (or any other kind or type of identifier includingidentifying information determined from passive or active signals fromthe wireless device 118) for the wireless device 118 is associated withthe A/V device 210. That is, a notification to the client device(s) 214,216 may only be sent when it is determined, at block B1204, that the MACaddress (or any other kind or type of identifier including identifyinginformation determined from passive or active signals from the wirelessdevice 118) for the wireless device 118 is not associated with the A/Vdevice 210. In this manner, unwanted notifications may be reduced, as itmay be more likely that a user of the client device(s) 214, 216 may notwant to receive a notification when a known person (e.g., a cohabitant,resident, family member, friend, etc.) is detected by the A/V device210.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 1300 foridentifying a wireless device based on data collected by an A/Vrecording and communication device, according to various aspects of thepresent disclosure. The process 1300, at block B1302, receives videodata of the object 106 in the FOV 104 of the camera 314. For example, acomputing device (e.g., the processor 502 of the server 224) mayreceive, from the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210, videodata of a person 114 within the FOV of the camera 314. In the process1300, at block B 1302, receiving the video data of the object 106 mayinclude receiving the video data at the processor 502 of the server 224via the communication module 504 of the server 224. In some examples,the object 106 may have the wireless device 118 associated with it, andthe wireless device 118 may be proximate the object 106. For example,the person 114 may be carrying the wireless device 118 during such timewhen he or she is in the FOV of the camera 314 and/or the FOV of themotion sensor(s) 326.

The process 1300, at block B 1304, receives the identifying informationfor the wireless device 118 (including, e.g., identifying informationdetermined from passive or active signals). For example, the processor502 of the server 224 may receive, from the communication module 312 ofthe A/V device 210, the identifying information for the wireless device118. In the process 1300, at block B1304, receiving the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 may include receiving theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 at the processor 502of the server 224 via the communication module 504 of the server 224.

The process 1300, at block B1306, stores the video data of the object106 and the identifying information for the wireless device 118(including, e.g., identifying information determined from passive oractive signals). For example, the processor 502 of the server 224 maystore the video data of the object 106 and the identifying informationfor the wireless device 118 in the memory 506 of the server 224. In someexamples, the process 1300, at block B1306, may include storing thevideo data of the object 106 and the identifying information for thewireless device 118 in response to receiving, at blocks B 1302 andB1304, the video data and the identifying information. In otherexamples, in the process 1300, at block 1306, storing the video data ofthe object 106 and the identifying information for the wireless device118 may include storing the video data and the identifying informationfor the wireless device in the network-connected device 110. Forexample, the processor 502 of the server 224 may store the video data ofthe object 106 and the identifying information for the wireless device118 in the memory 506 of the server 224.

The process 1300, at block B1308, retrieves, from a database, a listingof identifying information (including, e.g., identifying informationdetermined from passive or active signals) for one or more wirelessdevices 118 associated with activity of interest (e.g., criminalactivity). For example, the processor 502 of the server 224 may retrievethe listing of identifying information for the one or more wirelessdevices 118 associated with activity of interest from a database storedin the memory 506 of the server 224. In some examples, the server 224may receive data including the listing of identifying information forthe one or more wireless devices 118 associated with activity ofinterest from a database stored in memory located and/or maintainedoutside the confines of the server 224 (e.g., an external database). Inthese embodiments, in the process 1300, at block B1308, retrieving thelisting of identifying information for the one or more wireless devices118 associated with activity of interest may include receiving, on anas-needed basis and/or at predetermined intervals of time, update datacontaining an updated listing of identifying information (including,e.g., identifying information determined from passive or active signals)for the one or more wireless devices 118 associated with activity ofinterest. In other examples, in the process 1300, at block 1308,retrieving the listing of identifying information for the one or morewireless devices 118 associated with activity of interest may includeretrieving, by the processor 502 of the server 224, the listing ofidentifying information for the one or more wireless devices 118associated with activity of interest from the database, such as theactivity of interest database 522 of FIG. 5.

The process 1300, at block B1310, determines that the stored identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 (including, e.g., identifyinginformation determined from passive or active signals) associated withthe object 106 in the FOV of the camera 314 matches an entry of thelisting of identifying information for the one or more wireless devices118 associated with activity of interest. For example, in the process1300, at block B1310, the processor 502 of the server 224 may read, fromthe memory 506, the stored identifying information for the wirelessdevice 118 received at block B1304 and compare it to the listing ofidentifying information for the one or more wireless devices 118associated with activity of interest.

The process 1300, at block B1312, creates a record associating thestored video data with activity of interest. For example, the processor502 of the server 224 may store the video data of the object 106 inassociation with the identifying information for the wireless device 118(including, e.g., identifying information determined from passive oractive signals) received at block B1304 (e.g., in a single file folderand/or as a specified class of data in the memory 506). In someexamples, in the process 1300, at block B1312, creating the recordassociating the stored video data with activity of interest (e.g.,criminal activity) includes storing, in the memory 506, video data ofinterest 518 and identifying information of interest 520 in an activityof interest database 522 (FIG. 5). In other examples, the process 1300,at block B1312, may include creating the record associating the storedvideo data with activity of interest in response to determining that thestored identifying information for the wireless device 118 associatedwith the object 106 in the FOV of the camera 312 matches the entry ofthe listing of identifying information for one or more wireless devices118 associated with activity of interest. In some examples, in theprocess 1300, at block B1312, creating the record associating the storedvideo data with activity of interest includes creating, by thenetwork-connected device 110 (e.g., the server 224), the recordassociating the stored video data with activity of interest.

In various embodiments, an activity of interest database (e.g., theactivity of interest database 522 of FIG. 5) may be a database ofpersons, devices, etc. known to be associated with activity of interest(e.g., criminal activity). For example, a law enforcement or othergovernment or security organization may maintain a database ofidentifying information for devices associated with persons, vehicles,etc. In this way, an A/V device (e.g., the A/V device 210) may detectthe presence of a wireless device that is in the database, even if theA/V device has never detected a presence of that wireless device before.For example, activity of interest databases may be similar to or one ofa person of interest database, a background checking database, agraffiti tracking database, or other type of database. Examples of suchdatabases may include the California Department of Justice CALGangdatabase, the Chicago Police Department Citizen and Law EnforcementAnalysis and Reporting (CLEAR) Data Warehouse, and the AutomatedRegional Justice Information System (ARES) Graffiti Tracker.

For example, one or more law enforcement agencies may add identifyinginformation relating to wireless devices of interest (or associated withvehicles and/or persons considered of interest), such that once an A/Vdevice detects that a wireless device is nearby, identifying information(including, e.g., identifying information determined from passive oractive signals) for that device may be checked against the database forwhether a wireless device is considered of interest (or associated witha vehicle and/or person considered of interest). In this way, anactivity of interest database as described herein may be used, even ifit is created and/or maintained by a third party, and may be used toidentify wireless devices of interest, even if the A/V device has neverinteracted with or detected that wireless device before. If a wirelessdevice from a database is detected by an A/V device, the system may alsosend a notification to the party that maintains the database or addedthe information about the wireless device to the database. For example,if a law enforcement agency adds identifying information about awireless device of a dangerous person (e.g., someone who has recentlycommitted a violent crime, an active shooter, etc.) to a database, amessage may be sent to various A/V devices to monitor for a wirelessdevice associated with the dangerous person. If the wireless deviceassociated with the dangerous person is detected based on theinformation in the database, a message may be generated by the A/Vdevice to send to a device of the entity that added the identifyinginformation to the database. To facilitate such messaging, the databasemay further include contact information for a party that has addedsomething to the database, such that a message relating to thatinformation may be easily generated when a wireless device isidentified. In some embodiments, the A/V device may send or stream videoto a device of the entity that added the identifying information to thedatabase.

In other examples, the process 1300 may include storing location datafor the camera 312. For example, the processor 506 may receive, via thecommunication module 504 of the server 224, location data for the camera312 from a user of the A/V device 210 at the time of and/or afterinstallation of the A/V device 210 by the user. In some examples, theprocessor 506 may store the location data for the camera 312 of the A/Vdevice 210 in the memory 506 of the server 224. In some examples, thememory 506 is coupled in communication with the processor 502 of theserver 224.

In some examples, block B 1306 of the process 1300 may include storingthe video data in the memory 506, and then storing the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 (including, e.g., identifyinginformation determined from passive or active signals) in the memory 506after storing the video data in the memory 506. In other examples, blockB1306 of the process 1300 may include storing the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 in the memory 506, and thenstoring the video data in the memory 506 after storing the identifyinginformation for the wireless device in the memory 506. In some examples,block B 1306 of the process 1300 may include storing the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 in the memory 506 substantiallysimultaneously with storing the video data in the memory 506 of theserver 224.

In other examples, the identifying information received, at block B1304,is encoded, and the process 1300 may include decoding the receivedidentifying information for the wireless device 118 (including, e.g.,identifying information determined from passive or active signals). Forexample, the processor 502 of the server 224 may decode the receivedidentifying information for the wireless device 118. In theseembodiments, after decoding the received identifying information for thewireless device 118, the process 1300 may include storing the decodedidentifying information for the wireless device 118 in the memory 506 ofthe server 224. In some examples, the process 1300 may includedetermining, by the processor 502, a direction of movement of the object106 based, at least in part, on the video data. In other examples, theprocess 1300 may include determining, by the processor 502, a speed ofmovement of the object 106 based, at least in part, on the video data.

In some examples, in the process 1300, the object 106 is or includes aperson 114. Where the object 106 is a person 114, the person 114 may bea criminal suspect or a crime victim. In some examples, the object 106includes a pet. In other examples, the object 106 includes a vehicle116. In other examples, where the object 106 includes a vehicle 116, thevehicle 116 may include the criminal suspect and/or the crime victim asa driver and/or passenger of the vehicle 116.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example aspect of the process1300 shown in FIG. 13, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. One or more of blocks shown in FIG. 14 may be performed bythe network-connected device 110 upon the occurrence of an event such asa criminal suspect or the suspect's wireless device 118 being identifiedin the geographic area of the A/V device 210 (e.g., by one or moreneighboring A/V device(s) 210). For example, a process 1400, at blockB1402, receives a notification of an event involving the wireless device118. In some examples, the notification of the event involving thewireless device 118 is received by the processor 502 of the server 224,including via the communication module 504. For example, the processor502 may receive the notification of the event involving the object 106and the wireless device 118 associated with the object 106. In someexamples, where the object 106 is the person 114 who is the criminalsuspect, the event may include a commission of a crime and thenotification of the event may include a report of the crime and/or thereport thereof having occurred.

The process 1400, at block B1404, wakes the camera 314 of the A/V device210 in response to receiving the notification of the event involving thewireless device 118. For example, in response to receiving, by thecommunication module 504, the notification of the event involving thewireless device 118, the processor 502 of the server 224 wakes thecamera 314 from a passive state to begin recording the video data (e.g.,by transmitting a wake camera instruction to the A/V device 210).

The process 1400, at block B1406, wakes the communication module 312 ofthe A/V device 210 in response to receiving the notification of theevent involving the wireless device 118. For example, in response toreceiving, by the processor 502 via the communication module 504, thenotification of the event involving the wireless device 118, theprocessor 502 wakes the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210from a passive state to begin receiving the signal from the wirelessdevice 118 (e.g., by transmitting a wake communication moduleinstruction to the A/V device 210).

The process 1400, at block B1408, wakes the processor 502 of the server224 in response to receiving, by the communication module 504, thenotification of the event involving the wireless device 118. Forexample, in response to receiving, by the communication module 504, thenotification of the event involving the wireless device 118, the process1400 wakes the processor 502 from a passive state to begin receiving,from the communication module 312 of the A/V device 210, the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118.

In some examples, the notification of the event involving the wirelessdevice 118 may include a location associated with the occurrence of theevent. In these embodiments, the process 1400 may include determining,by the processor 502 of the server 224, whether a location of one ormore A/V devices 210 are within the predetermined distance of thelocation associated with the occurrence of the event (e.g., in order towake one or more of those A/V devices 210). Also, in these embodiments,block B1306 of the process 1300 may include storing the video data andthe identifying information in the memory 506 of the server 224 inresponse to determining that the location of the A/V device 210 iswithin the predetermined distance of the location associated with theoccurrence of the event.

In some examples, the notification of the event involving the wirelessdevice 118 may include pre-identified wireless device identifier dataassociated with the occurrence of the event. For example, a criminalsuspect may be known to be carrying a wireless device 118 having one ormore known wireless signal characteristics. Where such wireless signalcharacteristics may function as pre-identified wireless deviceidentifier data, providing it to the processor 502 of the server 224 mayfacilitate identifying and locating the wireless device 118 and theobject 106 of interest associated therewith using the disclosed systemsand methods.

In some examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing a camera 314 to record video data at a higher resolution in thepresence of one or more predetermined conditions, as compared to a lowerresolution recorded in the absence of the one or more predeterminedconditions. In the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, for example, inresponse to receiving, by the communication module 504, the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data, the processor 502 of the server 224 maycause the camera 314 to record video data at the higher resolution thanthe lower resolution used in the absence of receiving the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data. In this example for the process 1300and/or the process 1400, the one or more predetermined conditions mayinclude the communication module 504 receiving the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data.

In other examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing the processor 502 of the server 224 to receive, via thecommunication module 504, the video data from the A/V device 210 using agreater bandwidth in the presence of the one or more predeterminedconditions, as compared to using a lesser bandwidth in the absence ofthe one or more predetermined conditions. In the process 1300 and/or theprocess 1400, for example, in response to receiving, by thecommunication module 504, the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118, the processor 502 of the server 224may cause the communication module 504 of the server 224 to receive thevideo data from the A/V device 210 using the greater bandwidth. In thisexample for the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, in the absence ofreceiving the identifying information for the wireless device 118including the pre-identified wireless device identifier data, theprocessor 502 of the server 224 may cause the communication module 504to receive the video data from A/V device 210 using the lesserbandwidth. Also, in this example for the process 1300 and/or the process1400, the one or more predetermined conditions may include thecommunication module 504 receiving the wireless device 118 identifyingdata including the pre-identified wireless device identifier data.

In some examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing security system 120 associated with the A/V device 210 to arm inthe presence of the one or more predetermined conditions, as compared tomaintaining security system 120 in a disarmed and/or other functionalstate different from an armed state in the absence of the one or morepredetermined conditions. In the process 1300 and/or the process 1400,for example, in response to receiving, by the communication module 504,the pre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wirelessdevice 118, the processor 502 of the server 224 may cause the securitysystem 120 associated with the A/V device 210 to arm. In this examplefor the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, in the absence ofreceiving the pre-identified wireless device identifier data from thewireless device 118, the processor 502 of the server 224 may cause thesecurity system 120 associated with the A/V device 210 to be maintainedin a disarmed and/or other functional state different from an armedstate. Also, in this example for the process 1300 and/or the process1400, the one or more predetermined conditions may include the processor502 receiving, via the communication module 504, the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118 from A/Vdevice 210.

In other examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing the processor 502, via the communication module 504, to transmitan alert to the client device(s) 214, 216 associated with the A/V device210 in the presence of the one or more predetermined conditions, ascompared to the alert not being transmitted to the client device(s) 214,216 in the absence of the one or more predetermined conditions. In theprocess 1300 and/or the process 1400, for example, in response toreceiving, by the processor 502 and/or the communication module 504, thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118, the processor 502 may cause the communication module 504 totransmit, to the client device(s) 214, 216, the alert indicating thereceipt of the pre-identified wireless device identifier data from thewireless device 118. In this example for the process 1300 and/or theprocess 1400, in the absence of receiving the pre-identified wirelessdevice identifier data from the wireless device 118, the processor 502of the server 224 may not cause the communication module 504 to transmitthe alert to the client device(s) 214, 216. Also, in this example forthe process 1300 and/or the process 1400, the one or more predeterminedconditions may include the processor 502 receiving, via thecommunication module 504, the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118. In these examples for the process1300 and the process 1400, transmitting the alert to the clientdevice(s) 214, 216 associated with the A/V device 210 may provide a userand/or other people associated with and authorized by the user toexercise additional caution and heightened security practices aroundsuch times when a criminal suspect or other person of interest isdetected as being in close proximity to a user's home having A/V device210. Also, in these examples, the alert may provide the user and/or theother people associated with and authorized by the user an ability toobtain information about the person of interest and to maintain aheightened awareness of their surroundings, including to identify theperson(s) and to report on and/or warn others of the whereabouts of theperson(s) of interest.

In some examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing the processor 502 of the server 224 to transmit, via thecommunication module 504, an alert to a system 122 configured to monitorfor emergency events in the presence of the one or more predeterminedconditions, as compared to the alert not being transmitted to the system122 configured to monitor for emergency events in the absence of the oneor more predetermined conditions. In the process 1300 and/or the process1400, for example, in response to receiving, by the processor 502 and/orthe communication module 504, the pre-identified wireless deviceidentifier data from the wireless device 118, the processor 502 of theserver 224 may cause the communication module 504 to transmit, to thesystem 122 configured to monitor for emergency events, the alertindicating the receipt of the pre-identified wireless device identifierdata from the wireless device 118. In this example for the process 1300and/or the process 1400, in the absence of receiving the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118, theprocessor 502 of the A/V device 210 may not cause the processor 502 totransmit, via the communication module 504, the alert to the system 122configured to monitor for emergency events. Also, in this example forthe process 1300 and/or the process 1400, the one or more predeterminedconditions may include the processor 502 and/or the communication module504 receiving the pre-identified wireless device identifier data fromthe wireless device 118. In these examples for the process 1300 and theprocess 1400, transmitting the alert to the system 122 configured tomonitor for emergency events may provide a police agency and/or otherinterested parties additional tools and functionality to facilitatelocating and/or apprehending a person of interest, such as a criminalsuspect. Also, in these examples, the alert may provide the policeagency and/or other interested parties an ability to obtain informationabout the person of interest and to maintain a heightened awareness oftheir surroundings, including to identify the person and to report onand/or warn others of the whereabouts of the person(s) of interest.

In other examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may beimplemented for a plurality of A/V devices 210, including a first A/Vdevice 210 at a first location and having a first communication module312, and including a second A/V device 210 at a second location andhaving a second communication module 312. In these implementations, thefirst A/V device 210 has a first camera 314, and the second A/V device210 has a second camera 314. The second A/V device 210 may be locatedwithin a predetermined distance of the first A/V device 210. The process1300 and/or the process 1400 may include causing the secondcommunication module 312 of at least the second A/V device 210 to wakefrom a passive state to begin transmitting the identifying informationfor the wireless device 118. For example, in the process 1300 and/or theprocess 1400, the second communication module 312 of at least the secondA/V device 210 may be awoken in the presence of the one or morepredetermined conditions being met for the first A/V device 210, ascompared to the at least the second A/V device 210 not being awoken inthe absence of the one or more predetermined conditions. The one or morepredetermined conditions may include the second A/V device 210 beinglocated within the predetermined distance of the first A/V device 210.In the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, for example, in response toreceiving, by the communication module 504 of the server 224, thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118 from the first A/V device 210, the processor 502 of the server 224may cause the processor(s) 310 of the second A/V device 210 to wake thesecond communication module 504 of the at least the second A/V device210 to begin receiving the signal including the identifying informationfrom the wireless device 118. In this example for the process 1300 andthe process 1400, in the absence of receiving the pre-identifiedwireless device identifier data from the wireless device 118 from thefirst A/V device 210, the processor 502 of the server 504 may not causethe processor(s) 310 of the second A/V device 210 to wake the secondcommunication module 504 of the at least the second A/V device 210 tobegin receiving the signal including the identifying information fromthe wireless device 118. Also, in this example for the process 1300 andthe process 1400, the one or more predetermined conditions may includethe first communication module 504 of the server 224 receiving thepre-identified wireless device identifier data from the wireless device118 from the first A/V device 210.

In some examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 includecausing the first and second communication modules 312 of the first andat least the second A/V devices 210 to transmit locations of theirrespective cameras 314 to the server 224 to facilitate locating theobject 106 of interest. For example, in the process 1300 and/or theprocess 1400, the first and second communication modules 312 maytransmit the locations of their respective cameras 314 to the server 224in the presence of the one or more predetermined conditions being metfor the processor 502 of the server 224, as compared to the first andsecond communication modules 312 not transmitting their locations in theabsence of the one or more predetermined conditions. In the process 1300and/or the process 1400, for example, in response to receiving, by theprocessor 502 and via the communication module 504, the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifying data from the first A/V device 210, theprocessor 502 may cause the first and second communication modules 312of the first and second A/V devices 210 to transmit their respectivelocations to the processor 502 of the server 224. In this example forthe process 1300 and/or the process 1400, in the absence of receivingthe pre-identified wireless device identifying data for the wirelessdevice 118, the processor 502 of the server 224 may not cause the firstand second communication modules 312 of the first and second A/V devices210 to transmit their respective locations to the processor 502 of theserver 224. Also, in this example for the process 1300 and/or theprocess 1400, the one or more predetermined conditions may include theprocessor 502 of the server 224 receiving, via the communication module504, the pre-identified wireless device identifying data for thewireless device 118 from the first A/V device 210. These examples forthe process 1300 and the process 1400 are applicable in cases where thecurrent location of the first and/or the second A/V devices 210 is notalready known (e.g., stored in the memory 506 of the server 224). Insuch cases, transmitting the locations of the first and second A/Vdevices 210 to the server 224 may provide the police agency and/or theother interested parties data for purposes of geographically locatingthe object 106 or person 114 of interest.

In some examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing the second camera 314 of the second A/V device 210 to wake froma passive state to begin recording video data. For example, in theprocess 1300 and/or the process 1400, the second camera 314 of at leastthe second A/V device 210 may be awoken in the presence of the one ormore predetermined conditions being met for the processor 502 of theserver 224, as compared to the at least the second A/V device 210 notbeing awoken in the absence of the one or more predetermined conditions.In the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, for example, in response toreceiving, by the processor 502 via the communication module 504, theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 including thepre-identified wireless device identifying data from the first A/Vdevice 210, the processor 502 may cause the second cameras 314 of the atleast the second A/V device 210 to wake to begin recording the videodata. In this example for the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, inthe absence of receiving the identifying information for the wirelessdevice 118 including the pre-identified wireless device identifying datafrom the first A/V device 210, the processor 502 may not cause thesecond camera 314 of the at least the second A/V device 210 to wake fromthe passive state to begin recording the video data. Also, in thisexample for the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, the one or morepredetermined conditions may include the processor 502 of the server 224receiving, via the communication module 504, the pre-identified wirelessdevice identifying data for the wireless device 118 from the first A/Vdevice 210.

In other examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing the second camera 314 of the second A/V device 210 to recordvideo data at a higher resolution in the presence of the one or morepredetermined conditions, as compared to recording the video data at alower resolution in the absence of the one or more predeterminedconditions. For example, in the process 1300 and/or the process 1400,the processor 502 of the server 224 may cause the second camera 314 ofat least the second A/V device 210 to record video data at the higherresolution in the presence of the one or more predetermined conditionsbeing met for the processor 502, as compared to the second camera 314 ofat least the second A/V device 210 recording video data at the lowerresolution in the absence of the one or more predetermined conditions.In the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, for example, in response toreceiving, by the processor 502 via the communication module 504, theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 including thepre-identified wireless device identifying data from the first A/Vdevice 210, the processor 502 may cause the second camera 314 of thesecond A/V device 210 to record video data at the higher resolution. Inthis example for the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, in theabsence of receiving the identifying information for the wireless device118 including the pre-identified wireless device identifying data fromthe first A/V device 210, the processor 502 may not cause the secondcamera 314 of the second A/V device 210 to record video data at thehigher resolution. Also, in this example for the process 1300 and/or theprocess 1400, the one or more predetermined conditions may include theprocessor 502 of the server 224 receiving, via the communication module504, the pre-identified wireless device identifying data for thewireless device 118 from the first A/V device 210.

In some examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing the processor 502 to receive, via the communication module 504,the identifying information for the wireless device 118 using a firstsequence in the presence of the one or more predetermined conditions, ascompared to using a second sequence in the absence of the one or morepredetermined conditions. For example, the process 1300 and/or theprocess 1400 may include causing the processor 502 of the server 224 toreceive, via the communication module 504, the identifying informationfor the wireless device 118 from at least the second A/V device 210using the first sequence in the presence of the one or morepredetermined conditions being met for the processor 502, as compared tothe processor 502 receiving the identifying information for the wirelessdevice 118 from at least the second A/V device 210 using the secondsequence. In the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, for example, inresponse to receiving, by the processor 502 and via the communicationmodule 504, the identifying information for the wireless device 118including the pre-identified wireless device identifying data from thefirst A/V device 210, the processor 502 may cause the communicationmodule 504 to receive the identifying information for the wirelessdevice to the network-connected device 110 after receiving the videodata (e.g., using the first sequence). In this example for the process1300 and/or the process 1400, in the absence of receiving theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 including thepre-identified wireless device identifying data from the first A/Vdevice 210, the processor 502 may not cause the communication module 504to receive the identifying information for the wireless device from thesecond A/V device 210 using the first sequence. In this case, in theabsence of receiving, by the communication module 504, the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifying data from the first A/V device 210, thecommunication module 504 may receive the identifying information for thewireless device from the second A/V device 210 before or concurrentlywith transmitting the video data (e.g., using a second sequence). Also,in this example for the process 1300 and/or the process 1400, the one ormore predetermined conditions may include the processor 502 of theserver 224 receiving, via the communication module 504, thepre-identified wireless device identifying data for the wireless device118 from the first A/V device 210.

In some examples, the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may includecausing the processor 502 to receive, via the communication module 504,the video data using a greater bandwidth in the presence of the one ormore predetermined conditions, as compared to using a lesser bandwidthin the absence of the one or more predetermined conditions. For example,the process 1300 and/or the process 1400 may include causing theprocessor 502 of the server 224 to receive, via the communication module504, the video data from at least the second A/V device 210 using thegreater bandwidth in the presence of the one or more predeterminedconditions being met for the processor 502, as compared to the processor502 receiving the video data using the lesser bandwidth. In the process1300 and/or the process 1400, for example, in response to receiving, bythe processor 502 and via the communication module 504, the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 including the pre-identifiedwireless device identifying data from the first A/V device 210, theprocessor 502 may cause the communication module 504 to receive thevideo data using the greater bandwidth. In this example for the process1300 and/or the process 1400, in the absence of receiving theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 including thepre-identified wireless device identifying data from the first A/Vdevice 210, the processor 502 may not cause the communication module 504to receive the video data from the second A/V device 210 using thelesser bandwidth. Also, in this example for the process 1300 and/or theprocess 1400, the one or more predetermined conditions may include theprocessor 502 of the server 224 receiving, via the communication module504, the pre-identified wireless device identifying data for thewireless device 118 from the first A/V device 210.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example aspect of the process1300 shown in FIG. 13, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. One or more blocks shown in FIG. 15 may be performed by thenetwork-connected device 110 in cases where the A/V device 210 andcomponents associated with and/or in communication with the A/V device210 are configured to detect an access request by the wireless device118 to a wireless network associated with the A/V device 210 (e.g., atthe A/V device 210 user's home). For those embodiments where theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 includes the MACaddress of the wireless device 118, the process 1500, at block B1502,detects an access request of the wireless device 118 to the WiFi networkassociated with the A/V recording and communication device (e.g., theA/V device 210). For example, the processor 502 of the server 224 may,via the communication module 504, detect the access request of thewireless device 118 to the WiFi network of the user's network 218. Invarious embodiments, the access request may instead be any other type ofpassive or active signal from a wireless device from which identifyinginformation may be determined.

The process 1500, at block B 1504, may determine that the MAC address orother identifying information for the wireless device 118 is notassociated with the A/V device 210. For example, the processor 502 ofthe server 224 may determine that the MAC address for the wirelessdevice 118 is not associated with a listing of known and/or alloweddevices permitted to access the WiFi network of the user's network 218.In that case, the processor 502 of the server 224 may facilitate denyingthe WiFi access request by the wireless device 118. Alternatively,where, at block B 1504, the process 1400 determines that the MAC addressfor the wireless device 118 is associated with the A/V device 210, theprocessor 502 of the server 224 may facilitate granting the WiFi accessrequest by the wireless device 118.

The process 1500, at block B1506, stores the MAC address. For example,the processor 502 stores the MAC address of the wireless device 118 inthe memory 506 of the server 224 in response to determining, at blockB1504, that the MAC address for the wireless device 118 is notassociated with the listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFi network.Alternatively, where, at block B1504, the process 1500 determines thatthe MAC address for the wireless device 118 is associated with the A/Vdevice 210, block B1506 may not be performed in the process 1500.

The process 1500, at block B 1508, wakes the computing device (e.g.,processor 502) from a passive state to begin receiving the identifyinginformation for the wireless device. For example, the processor 502 ofthe server 224 may, after it is awoken in the process 1500, wake thecommunication module 504 of the server 224. In some examples, block B1508 includes waking the processor 502 and/or the communication module504 from the passive state in response to determining, at block B 1504,that the MAC address for the wireless device 118 is not associated withthe listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFi network. Alternatively,where, at block B1504, the process 1500 determines that the MAC addressfor the wireless device 118 is associated with the A/V device 210, blockB 1508 may not be performed in the process 1500.

The process 1500, at block B1510, wakes the camera 314 of the A/V device210 from the passive state to begin recording the video data. Forexample, the processor 502 of the server 224 may wake the camera 314 ofthe A/V device 210 from the passive state in response to determining, atblock B1504, that the MAC address for the wireless device 118 is notassociated with the listing of known MAC addresses for the WiFi network.Alternatively, where, at block B1504, the process 1500 determines thatthe MAC address for the wireless device 118 is associated with the A/Vdevice 210, block B1510 may not be performed in the process 1500.

In various embodiments, when it is determined, at block B1504, that theMAC address (or any other kind or type of identifier includingidentifying information determined from passive or active signals fromthe wireless device 118) for the wireless device 118 is not associatedwith the A/V device 210, the process 1500 may include transmitting anotification to the client device(s) 214, 216. The notification maycomprise, for example, a push notification, and may indicate that anunrecognized and/or unauthorized wireless device was detected. Forexample, since an unrecognized wireless device may be associated with anintruder (e.g., a burglar), the notification to the client device(s)214, 216 may include warning language, such as “Intruder Wi-Fi packetdetected.” The notification may be sent prior to, or together with,image data (e.g., video) of the possible intruder. The foregoing aspectsmay be performed in addition to, or as an alternative to, blocks B1506,B1508, and B1510 of the process 1500. In various embodiments,notifications to the client device(s) 214, 216 may be suppressed whenthe MAC address (or any other kind or type of identifier includingidentifying information determined from passive or active signals fromthe wireless device 118) for the wireless device 118 is associated withthe A/V device 210. That is, a notification to the client device(s) 214,216 may only be sent when it is determined, at block B1504, that the MACaddress (or any other kind or type of identifier including identifyinginformation determined from passive or active signals from the wirelessdevice 118) for the wireless device 118 is not associated with the A/Vdevice 210. In this manner, unwanted notifications may be reduced, as itmay be more likely that a user of the client device(s) 214, 216 may notwant to receive a notification when a known person (e.g., a cohabitant,resident, family member, friend, etc.) is detected by the A/V device210.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example aspect of the process1300 shown in FIG. 13, according to various aspects of the presentdisclosure. One or more blocks shown in FIG. 16 may be performed by thenetwork-connected device 110 in cases where user(s) associated with theA/V device 210 may provide permission for a third-party user and/orsystem to access and otherwise use the data stored by thenetwork-connected device 110 (e.g., server 224). For example, theprocess 1600, at block B1602, receives permission data of the user ofthe A/V device 210. In some examples, the permission data is received,via the communication module 504, by the processor 502 of the server224. The permission data received at block B1602 includes one of: apresence of, and an absence of, permission to store the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 in the memory 506 of the server224.

The process 1600, at block B1604, stores, via the processor 502, thepermission data of the user of the A/V device 210 in the memory 506 ofthe server 224. The process 1600, at block B1606, may receive a requestto transmit the identifying information for the wireless device 118 toan administrator system 130. For example, the processor 502 receives,via the communication module 504, the request to transmit theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 to the administratorsystem 130. The process 1600, at block B1608, includes transmitting theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 to the administratorsystem 130 in response to receiving, by the processor 502 via thecommunication module 504, the request from the administrator system 130.For example, in response to receiving the request from the administratorsystem 130, the processor 502 of the server 224 transmits, via thecommunication module 504, the identifying information for the wirelessdevice 118 to the administrator system 130 in response to the permissiondata including the presence of permission to store the identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 in the memory 506 of the server224.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example process 1700 forgeographically locating an object 106 associated with activity ofinterest based on data collected from an A/V recording and communicationdevice, according to various aspects of the present disclosure. Theprocess 1700, at block B1702, receives first video data of the object106 in a first FOV 104 of a camera 314 of a first A/V recording andcommunication device (e.g., a first A/V device 210). In some examples,the object 106 may have the wireless device 118 associated with it, andthe wireless device 118 may be proximate the object 106. For example,the person 114 may be carrying the wireless device 118 during such timewhen he or she is in the first FOV of camera 314 of the first A/V device210 and/or the first FOV of the motion sensor(s) 326 of the first A/Vdevice 210. For example, a computing device (e.g., processor 502 of theserver 224) may receive, from the communication module 312 of the firstA/V device 210, first video data of person 114 within the first FOV ofthe camera 314 of the first A/V device 210. In the process 1700, atblock B1702, receiving the first video data of the object 106 mayinclude receiving the first video data at the processor 502 of theserver 224 via the communication module 504 of the server 224.

In the process 1700, block B1702 includes receiving first identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118. For example, the processor 502of the server 224 may receive, from the communication module 312 offirst A/V device 210, the first identifying information for the wirelessdevice 118. In the process 1700, at block B1702, receiving the firstidentifying information for the wireless device 118 may includereceiving the first identifying information for the wireless device 118at the processor 502 of the server 224 via the communication module 504of the server 224.

The process 1700, at block B1704, receives an indication that at leastone of the first video data, the object 106, and the wireless device 118is associated with activity of interest. In some examples, the processor502 of the server 224 may receive the indication that at least one ofthe first video data, the object 106, and the wireless device 118 isassociated with activity of interest from the administrator system 130.In other examples, the processor 502 of the server 224 may receive theindication that at least one of the first video data, the object 106,and the wireless device 118 is associated with activity of interest fromthe client device(s) 214, 216.

The process 1700, at block B1706, receives second video data of theobject 106 in a second FOV 104 of a camera 314 of a second A/V recordingand communication device (e.g., a second A/V device 210). In someexamples, while it is in the second FOV, the object 106 may have thewireless device 118 associated with it, and the wireless device 118 maybe proximate the object 106. For example, the person 114 may be carryingthe wireless device 118 during such time when he or she is in the secondFOV of camera 314 of the second A/V device 210 and/or the second FOV ofthe motion sensor(s) 326 of the second A/V device 210. For example, theprocessor 502 of the server 224 may receive, from the communicationmodule 312 of the second A/V device 210, second video data of person 114within the second FOV of the camera 314 of the second A/V device 210. Inthe process 1700, at block B1706, receiving the second video data of theobject 106 may include receiving the second video data at the processor502 of the server 224 via the communication module 504 of the server224.

In the process 1700, block B1706 includes receiving second identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118. For example, the processor 502of the server 224 may receive, from the communication module 312 ofsecond A/V device 210, the second identifying information for thewireless device 118. In the process 1700, at block B1706, receiving thesecond identifying information for the wireless device 118 may includereceiving the second identifying information for the wireless device 118at the processor 502 of the server 224 via the communication module 504of the server 224.

The process 1700, at block B 1708, determines that the first and secondidentifying information identify the same wireless device 118. Forexample, the processor 502 of the server 224 may, upon receipt from thefirst and second A/V devices 210, store the first and second identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118 in the memory 506 of the server224. In some examples, block B1708 of the process 1700 may includecomparing data for the first identifying information for the wirelessdevice 118 to data for the second identifying information for thewireless device 118. In these embodiments, block B 1708 of the process1700 may include matching the data for the first identifying informationfor the wireless device 118 to the data for the second identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118. The process 1700, at block B1710, associates the second video data with activity of interest. Forexample, the processor 502 of the server 224 may associate the secondvideo with the activity of interest in response to determining, at blockB1708, that the first and second identifying information identify thesame wireless device 118. In various embodiments, a database such as theactivity of interest database 522 may be updated (even if the databaseis a third-party database) with the association of the wireless device118 as being of interest. In this way, other devices may use thedatabase in the future to determine that a wireless device (and/or aperson/vehicle associated with a wireless device) is of interest withouthaving been in communication with the wireless device 118 before.

In some examples, the process 1700 may include determining, by theprocessor 502, a direction of movement of the object 106 based, at leastin part, on the first video data and the second video data. In otherexamples, the process 1700 may include determining, by the processor502, a speed of movement of the object 106 based, at least in part, onthe first video data and the second video data. In these embodiments,determining the direction of movement and/or the speed of movement ofthe object 106 may facilitate geographically locating the object 106.

In some examples, in the process 1700, the object 106 includes a person114. In other examples, where the object 106 is a person 114, the person114 may be a criminal suspect or a crime victim. In other examples, theobject 106 includes a pet. In some examples, the object 106 includes avehicle 116. In other examples, where the object 106 includes a vehicle116, the vehicle 116 may include the criminal suspect and/or the crimevictim as a driver and/or passenger of the vehicle 116.

In other examples, the process 1700 includes identifying, by theprocessor 502 of the server 224, the object 106 in the first and secondvideo data. In some examples, the process 1700 may include determining,by the processor 502 of the server 224, that a first appearance time ofthe object 106 in the first video data is within a first predeterminedamount of time of a first receipt time of the first identifyinginformation for the wireless device 118. In these examples, the process1700 may include determining, by the processor 502, that a secondappearance time of the object 106 in the second video data is within asecond predetermined amount of time of a second receipt time of thesecond identifying information for the wireless device 118.

In those embodiments where the object 106 includes a vehicle 116, theprocess 1700 may include matching, by the processor 502, at least aportion of a license plate of the vehicle 116 in the first video datawith at least a portion of the license plate of the vehicle 116 in thesecond video data. In some examples, the processor 502 uses alphanumericcharacter recognition for matching the at least a portion of the licenseplate of the vehicle 116 in the first video data with the at least aportion of the license plate of the vehicle 116 in the second videodata. In those embodiments where the object 106 includes a person 114,the process 1700 includes matching, by the processor 502, at least aportion of a face of the person 114 in the first video data with atleast a portion of the face of the person 114 in the second video data.In some examples, in the process 1700, the processor 502 uses facialfeature recognition for matching the at least a portion of the face ofthe person 114 in the first video data with the at least a portion ofthe face of the person 114 in the second video data.

The above-described systems and methods use video data of the person 114in the FOV of the camera 314 of the A/V device 210 along with theidentifying information for the wireless device 118 being carried by theperson 114 to provide a dual-level identification of the person 114 andto enable locating the person 114 in a geographic area. The features ofthe systems and methods disclosed herein provide for faster and moreeffective identification and apprehension of, for instance, criminalsuspects for the benefit of public safety.

FIG. 18 is a functional block diagram of a client device 1802 on whichthe present embodiments may be implemented according to various aspectsof the present disclosure. The client device(s) 214, 216 described withreference to FIG. 2 may include some or all of the components and/orfunctionality of the client device 1802. The client device 1802 maycomprise, for example, a smartphone.

With reference to FIG. 18, the client device 1802 includes a processor1804, a memory 1806, a user interface 1808, a communication module 1810,and a dataport 1812. These components are communicatively coupledtogether by an interconnect bus 1814. The processor 1804 may include anyprocessor used in smartphones and/or portable computing devices, such asan ARM processor (a processor based on the RISC (reduced instruction setcomputer) architecture developed by Advanced RISC Machines (ARM).). Insome embodiments, the processor 1804 may include one or more otherprocessors, such as one or more conventional microprocessors, and/or oneor more supplementary co-processors, such as math co-processors.

The memory 1806 may include both operating memory, such as random-accessmemory (RAM), as well as data storage, such as read-only memory (ROM),hard drives, flash memory, or any other suitable memory/storage element.The memory 1806 may include removable memory elements, such as aCompactFlash card, a MultiMediaCard (MMC), and/or a Secure Digital (SD)card. In some embodiments, the memory 2006 may comprise a combination ofmagnetic, optical, and/or semiconductor memory, and may include, forexample, RAM, ROM, flash drive, and/or a hard disk or drive. Theprocessor 1804 and the memory 1806 each may be, for example, locatedentirely within a single device, or may be connected to each other by acommunication medium, such as a USB port, a serial port cable, a coaxialcable, an Ethernet-type cable, a telephone line, a radio frequencytransceiver, or other similar wireless or wired medium or combination ofthe foregoing. For example, the processor 1804 may be connected to thememory 1806 via the dataport 1812.

The user interface 1808 may include any user interface or presentationelements suitable for a smartphone and/or a portable computing device,such as a keypad, a display screen, a touchscreen, a microphone, and aspeaker. The communication module 1810 is configured to handlecommunication links between the client device 1802 and other, externaldevices or receivers, and to route incoming/outgoing data appropriately.For example, inbound data from the dataport 1812 may be routed throughthe communication module 1810 before being directed to the processor1804, and outbound data from the processor 1804 may be routed throughthe communication module 1810 before being directed to the dataport1812. The communication module 1810 may include one or more transceivermodules capable of transmitting and receiving data, and using, forexample, one or more protocols and/or technologies, such as GSM, UMTS(3GSM), IS-95 (CDMA one), IS-2000 (CDMA 2000), LTE, FDMA, TDMA, W-CDMA,CDMA, OFDMA, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, or any other protocol and/or technology.

The dataport 1812 may be any type of connector used for physicallyinterfacing with a smartphone and/or a portable computing device, suchas a mini-USB port or an IPHONE®/IPOD® 30-pin connector or LIGHTNING®connector. In other embodiments, the dataport 1812 may include multiplecommunication channels for simultaneous communication with, for example,other processors, servers, and/or client terminals.

The memory 1806 may store instructions for communicating with othersystems, such as a computer. The memory 1806 may store, for example, aprogram (e.g., computer program code) adapted to direct the processor1804 in accordance with the present embodiments. The instructions alsomay include program elements, such as an operating system. Whileexecution of sequences of instructions in the program causes theprocessor 1804 to perform the process steps described herein, hard-wiredcircuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with,software/firmware instructions for implementation of the processes ofthe present embodiments. Thus, the present embodiments are not limitedto any specific combination of hardware and software.

FIG. 19 is a functional block diagram of a general-purpose computingsystem on which the present embodiments may be implemented according tovarious aspects of the present disclosure. The computer system 1902 maybe embodied in at least one of a personal computer (also referred to asa desktop computer) 1904, a portable computer (also referred to as alaptop or notebook computer) 1906, and/or a server 1908 is a computerprogram and/or a machine that waits for requests from other machines orsoftware (clients) and responds to them. A server typically processesdata. The purpose of a server is to share data and/or hardware and/orsoftware resources among clients. This architecture is called theclient-server model. The clients may run on the same computer or mayconnect to the server over a network. Examples of computing serversinclude database servers, file servers, mail servers, print servers, webservers, game servers, and application servers. The term server may beconstrued broadly to include any computerized process that shares aresource to one or more client processes.

The computer system 1902 may execute at least some of the operationsdescribed above. The computer system 1902 may include at least oneprocessor 1910, memory 1912, at least one storage device 1914, andinput/output (I/O) devices 1916. Some or all of the components 1910,1912, 1914, 1916 may be interconnected via a system bus 1918. Theprocessor 1910 may be single- or multi-threaded and may have one or morecores. The processor 1910 execute instructions, such as those stored inthe memory 1912 and/or in the storage device 1914. Information may bereceived and output using one or more I/O devices 1916.

The memory 1912 may store information, and may be a computer-readablemedium, such as volatile or non-volatile memory. The storage device(s)1914 may provide storage for the system 1902 and, in some embodiments,may be a computer-readable medium. In various aspects, the storagedevice(s) 1914 may be a flash memory device, a hard disk device, anoptical disk device, a tape device, or any other type of storage device.

The I/O devices 1916 may provide input/output operations for the system1902. The I/0 devices 1916 may include a keyboard, a pointing device,and/or a microphone. The I/O devices 1916 may further include a displayunit for displaying graphical user interfaces, a speaker, and/or aprinter. External data may be stored in one or more accessible externaldatabases 1920.

The features of the present embodiments described herein may beimplemented in digital electronic circuitry, and/or in computerhardware, firmware, software, and/or in combinations thereof. Featuresof the present embodiments may be implemented in a computer programproduct tangibly embodied in an information carrier, such as amachine-readable storage device, and/or in a propagated signal, forexecution by a programmable processor. Embodiments of the present methodsteps may be performed by a programmable processor executing a programof instructions to perform functions of the described implementations byoperating on input data and generating output.

The features of the present embodiments described herein may beimplemented in one or more computer programs that are executable on aprogrammable system including at least one programmable processorcoupled to receive data and/or instructions from, and to transmit dataand/or instructions to, a data storage system, at least one inputdevice, and at least one output device. A computer program may include aset of instructions that may be used, directly or indirectly, in acomputer to perform a certain activity or bring about a certain result.A computer program may be written in any form of programming language,including compiled or interpreted languages, and it may be deployed inany form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, component,subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment.

Suitable processors for the execution of a program of instructions mayinclude, for example, both general and special purpose processors,and/or the sole processor or one of multiple processors of any kind ofcomputer. Generally, a processor may receive instructions and/or datafrom a read only memory (ROM), or a random-access memory (RAM), or both.Such a computer may include a processor for executing instructions andone or more memories for storing instructions and/or data.

Generally, a computer may also include, or be operatively coupled tocommunicate with, one or more mass storage devices for storing datafiles. Such devices include magnetic disks, such as internal hard disksand/or removable disks, magneto-optical disks, and/or optical disks.Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer programinstructions and/or data may include all forms of non-volatile memory,including for example semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM,EEPROM, and flash memory devices, magnetic disks such as internal harddisks and removable disks, magneto-optical disks, and CD-ROM and DVD-ROMdisks. The processor and the memory may be supplemented by, orincorporated in, one or more ASICs (application-specific integratedcircuits).

To provide for interaction with a user, the features of the presentembodiments may be implemented on a computer having a display device,such as an LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor, for displayinginformation to the user. The computer may further include a keyboard, apointing device, such as a mouse or a trackball, and/or a touchscreen bywhich the user may provide input to the computer.

The features of the present embodiments may be implemented in a computersystem that includes a back-end component, such as a data server, and/orthat includes a middleware component, such as an application server oran Internet server, and/or that includes a front-end component, such asa client computer having a graphical user interface (GUI) and/or anInternet browser, or any combination of these. The components of thesystem may be connected by any form or medium of digital datacommunication, such as a communication network. Examples ofcommunication networks may include, for example, a LAN (local areanetwork), a WAN (wide area network), and/or the computers and networksforming the Internet.

The computer system may include clients and servers. A client and servermay be remote from each other and interact through a network, such asthose described herein. The relationship of client and server may ariseby virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers andhaving a client-server relationship to each other.

As used herein, the phrases “at least one of A, B and C,” “at least oneof A, B, or C,” and “A, B, and/or C” are synonymous and mean logical“OR” in the computer science sense. Thus, each of the foregoing phrasesshould be understood to read on (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (Band C), and (A and B and C), where A, B, and C are variablesrepresenting elements or features of the claim. Also, while theseexamples are described with three variables (A, B, C) for ease ofunderstanding, the same interpretation applies to similar phrases inthese formats with any number of two or more variables.

The above description presents the best mode contemplated for carryingout the present embodiments, and of the manner and process of practicingthem, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable anyperson skilled in the art to which they pertain to practice theseembodiments. The present embodiments are, however, susceptible tomodifications and alternate constructions from those discussed abovethat are fully equivalent. Consequently, the present invention is notlimited to the particular embodiments disclosed. On the contrary, thepresent invention covers all modifications and alternate constructionscoming within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Forexample, the steps in the processes described herein need not beperformed in the same order as they have been presented, and may beperformed in any order(s). Further, steps that have been presented asbeing performed separately may in alternative embodiments be performedconcurrently. Likewise, steps that have been presented as beingperformed concurrently may in alternative embodiments be performedseparately.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a computingdevice, video data from an A/V recording and communication device (A/Vdevice) having a camera, the video data representing images of an objectin a field of view (FOV) of the camera; receiving, by the computingdevice from the A/V device, identifying information for a wirelessdevice proximate the camera; receiving, by the computing device, anindication that at least one of the video data, the object, or thewireless device is associated with activity of interest; and sending, bythe computing device to a database, a record associating the wirelessdevice with the activity of interest, wherein the record comprises theidentifying information for the wireless device.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising sending, by the computing device to the database,the video data along with the record associating the wireless devicewith the activity of interest.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein thedatabase is an activity of interest database or a law enforcementdatabase.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is notvisible within the FOV of the camera.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising sending, by the computing device to a client electronicdevice, the video data, wherein the indication that at least one of thevideo data, the object, or the wireless device is associated withactivity of interest is received from the client electronic device afterthe video data is sent to the client electronic device.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein receiving the identifying information for the wirelessdevice occurs at a first time, and wherein the method further comprises:after receiving the identifying information for the wireless device atthe first time, receiving, by the computing device from the A/V device,the identifying information for the wireless device at a second time;and after receiving the identifying information for the wireless deviceat the second time, sending, by the computing device to a clientelectronic device, a notification that the wireless device was detectedby the A/V device.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, afterreceiving the indication that at least one of the video data, theobject, or the wireless device is associated with the activity ofinterest, causing a security system associated with the A/V device toarm.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the A/V device is a first A/Vdevice and the camera of the first A/V device is a first camera, andwherein the method further comprises: after receiving the indicationthat at least one of the video data, the object, or the wireless deviceis associated with the activity of interest, causing at least a secondA/V device to record video using a second camera of the second A/Vdevice and/or causing the second A/V device to monitor for signalsincluding the identifying information for the wireless device.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the identifying information for the wirelessdevice is received as part of a passive signal transmitted from thewireless device.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the passive signalcomprises a signal searching for an available wireless access point oran available wireless network.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein thepassive signal comprises at least one of a location services signal, anear field communication (NFC) signal, a Bluetooth signal, or anelectromagnetic field (EMF) signal.
 12. The method of claim 9, whereinthe passive signal is sent while the wireless device is on, while thewireless device is off while a screen of the wireless device is on,while the screen of the wireless device is off, while the screen of thewireless device is displaying a lock screen, while the screen of thewireless device is displaying a home screen, while an app running on thewireless device is in active use, while the app is running in thebackground, while the wireless device is operating in an airplane mode,while a Wi-Fi functionality of the wireless device is enabled, while theWi-Fi functionality of the wireless device is disabled, while aBluetooth functionality of the wireless device is enabled, or while theBluetooth functionality of the wireless device is disabled.
 13. Amethod, comprising: receiving, by a computing device, first video datafrom a first A/V recording and communication device (A/V device) havinga first camera, the first video data representing images of a firstobject in a first field of view (FOV) of the first camera; receiving, bythe computing device from the first A/V device, first identifyinginformation for a wireless device proximate the first camera; receiving,by the computing device, second video data from a second A/V devicehaving a second camera, the second video data representing images of asecond object in a second FOV of the second camera; receiving, by thecomputing device from the second A/V device, second identifyinginformation for the wireless device proximate the second camera;determining, by the computing device, that the first identifyinginformation and the second identifying information both identify thewireless device; and sending, by the computing device to a database, arecord associating the wireless device with activity of interest,wherein the record comprises at least one of the first identifyinginformation or the second identifying information for the wirelessdevice.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining, bythe computing device, that at least one of the first video data, thesecond video data, the first object, the second object, or the wirelessdevice is associated with the activity of interest, and wherein therecord is sent after determining that at least one of the first videodata, the second video data, the first object, the second object, or thewireless device is associated with the activity of interest.
 15. Themethod of claim 13, wherein the record further comprises at least one offirst location information associated with the first A/V device, secondlocation information associated with the second A/V device, the firstvideo data, or the second video data.
 16. The method of claim 13,wherein the first object and the second object are the same object. 17.The method of claim 13, further comprising: determining; by thecomputing device based at least in part on the first video data, thesecond video data, and location information of the first A/V device andthe second A/V device, at least one of an estimated direction ofmovement or an estimated speed of movement of the object; and sending,by the computing device to at least one of a law enforcement electronicdevice or a client electronic device, a notification indicating the atleast one of the estimated direction of movement or the estimated speedof movement of the object.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein: at leastone of the first identifying information or the second identifyinginformation for the wireless device is received as part of a passivesignal transmitted from the wireless device; and the passive signalcomprises at least one of a signal searching for an available wirelessaccess point or an available wireless network, a location servicessignal, a near field communication (NFC) signal, a Bluetooth signal, oran electro-magnetic field (EMF) signal.
 19. A method, comprising:receiving, by a computing device, video data from an A/V recording andcommunication device (A/V device) having a camera, the video datarepresenting images of an object in a field of view (FOV) of the camera;receiving, by the computing device from the A/V device, identifyinginformation for a wireless device proximate the camera; determining, bythe computing device, that at least one of the video data, the object,or the wireless device is associated with activity of interest; andsending, by the computing device to a database, a record associating thewireless device with the activity of interest, wherein the recordcomprises the identifying information for the wireless device.
 20. Themethod of claim 18, wherein the identifying information for the wirelessdevice is received at the first A/V device as part of a passive signaltransmitted from the wireless device and the passive signal comprises atleast one of a signal searching for an available wireless access pointor available wireless network, a location services signal, a near fieldcommunication (NFC) signal, a Bluetooth signal, or an electro-magneticfield (EMF) signal.